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5|artjarb  CoOese  library 


BRIGHT  LEGACY 

aif  lb*  tncoBC  from  thit  Lccicy,  »bfcb  w*«  tc- 

JONATHAN  BMOWN  BKIGHT 

libui,  MMUctiiutna,  1>  (0  be  upended  for  b 

ttti  Id  tcbDltnblM  ja  Hamrd  Ualfcitlfr  fv 

HINRY  BKICHT,  JR.., 


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HISTORY 


OF 


THE  COLONY  OF  NEW  HAVEN 


TO   ITS  ABSORPTION   INTO 


CONNECTICUT. 


BY 

EDWARD    E.   ATWATER. 


NEW  HAVEN: 
PRINTED    FOR    THE    AUTHOR. 

i88r. 


HARVARD  COLUGE  LIBRARY 


/!■ 


^'C^  0 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  j88o, 

By  EDWARD  E.  ATWATER, 

In  the  office  of  the  librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


Stereotyped  atul  Printed  hy  Rand,  Avery ,  6*  C^., 

Boston, 


PREFACE. 


THE  author  cannot  better  express  the  feelings  which  have 
prompted  him  to  study  and  write  the  history  of  the 
Colony  of  New  Haven,  than  by  appropriating  the  following 
words  of  Dr.  Trumbull :  — 

"  No  man  of  genius  and  curiosity  can  read  accounts  of  the 
origin  of  nations,  the  discovery,  settlement,  and  progress  of  new 
countries,  without  a  high  degree  of  entertainment.     But  in  the 

« 

settlement  of  his  own  country,  in  the  lives  of  his  ancestors,  in 
their  adventures,  morals,  jurisprudence,  and  heroism,  he  feels 
himself  particularly  interested.  He  at  once  becomes  a  party  in 
their  affairs,  and  travels  and  converses  with  them  with  a  kind 
of  filial  delight.  While  he  beholds  them  braving  the  horrors  of 
the  desert,  the  terrors  of  the  savage,  the  distresses  of  famine 
and  war,  he  admires  their  courage,  and  is  pleased  with  all  their 
escapes  from  danger,  and  all  their  progress  in  settlement,  popu- 
lation, opulence,  literature,  and  happiness." 

Deeply  interested  in  the  early  history  of  New  Haven,  he 
thought  that  by  imparting  the  information  which  many  desire, 
but  few  have  leisure  to  glean  from  the  wide  field  over  which  it 
is  scattered,  he  might  do  some  service  to  the  community  in 
which  he  lives.     He  feels  assured  that  many  descendants  of  the 


lU 


IV  PREFACE. 

Christian  Englishmen  who  first  brought  the  light  of  civilization 
to  these  shores  will  be  interested  in  his  work.  He  hopes  that 
some  whose  ancestors  came  hither  at  a  later  period,  and  others 
who  though  bom  in  foreign  lands  have  chosen  New  Haven  as 
their  home,  and  learned  to  love  it,  will  gladly  acquaint  them- 
selves with  the  men  by  whose  toil  and  heroism  this  goodly 
heritage  was  cut  out  of  a  wilderness. 

The  fulness  of  the  records,  both  of  the  toiwi  and  of  the 
colony  of  New  Haven,  makes  it  possible  to  present  the  first 
planters  as,  in  large  measure,  the  narrators  of  their  own  histor}\ 
The  author,  preferring  that  they  should  speak  for  themselves, 
has  made  large  extracts  fi*om  their  records  and  fix)m  other  con- 
temporary writings.  The  Xovm  records  of  New  Haven  for  the 
first  ten  years  are  in  print,  and  the  manuscript  records  of  the 
next  sixteen  years  have  been  carefully  read.  The  records  of 
other  towns  within  the  colony,  being  less  accessible  to  the 
author,  have  not  been  so  thoroughly  examined :  they  are,  how- 
ever, but  meagre  as  compared  with  those  of  New  Haven. 
Ralph  D.  Smith  diligently  searched  those  of  Guilford,  and 
Lambert  those  of  Milford ;  and  their  histories  have  been  finely 
used. 

Introducing  the  fathers  of  the  New  Haven  Colony,  and  for- 
bearing for  the  most  part  both  eulogy  and  censure,  the  author 
has  left  them  to  make,  with  their  own  words,  such  impression 
as  they  may.  He  does  not  conceal  his  admiration  of  them ;  he 
does  not  claim  that  they  were  faultless :  he  desires  to  present 
them  just  as  they  were. 

His  first  thought  was  to  allow  every  person  to  appear  m  his 
01W1  orthography ;  but  on  further  reflection,  he  concluded  to  give 


PREFACE.  V 

a  few  specimens  of  the  phonetic  spelling  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  then,  by  reducing  all  quotations  to  present  usage, 
to  deliver  his  readers  from  the  difficulty  of  interpreting  incident 
to  the  ancient  lawlessness.  Accordingly  the  certificate  of 
conformity  which  Davenport  received  the  first  Sunday  after  his 
induction  at  St.  Stephen's  is  printed  on  page  30  as  it  was 
written  ;  as  are  also  the  first  two  documents  in  the  Appendix. 

In  recording  an  event  which  took  place  between  the  first  day 
of  January  and  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  March,  the  year  has  been 
written  according  to  New  Style,  or  else  both  styles  are  given ; 
but  the  days  in  a  month  are  in  all  cases  numbered  according  to 
the  ancient  computation.  The  use  of  Old  Style  as  applied  to 
days  will  occasion  little  if  any  trouble  to  the  reader^  Even  if 
he  forgets  that,  according  to  our  way  of  reckoning,  the  event 
took  place  ten  days  later,  his  misconception  will  not  be  very 
important.  But  to  record  in  Old  Style  an  event  which  hap- 
pened in  the  early  part  of  the  modem  year,  without  intimating 
that  the  year  needed  correction,  might  seriously  mislead. 

Reference  has  not  always  been  made  to  the  original  author- 
ity, in  confirmation  of  a  particular  statement.  Such  references 
may  be  useful  to  the  specialist,  but  when  frequent  are  annoying 
to  most  readers.  Public  records  have  been  sufficiently  indi- 
cated as  authority  for  information  derived  from  that  source,  and 
any  item  acquired  by  gleaning  from  the  collections  of  Historical 
Societies  is  definitely  referred  to  the  volume  from  which  it  was 
taken.  But  references  to  Winthrop*s  Journal,  Hubbard's  His- 
tory of  New  England,  Mather's  Magnalia,  and  Hutchinson's 
History  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  have  been  for  the 
most  part  omitted,  for  the  reason  that  the  specialist  can  readily 


vi  PREFACE. 

find  whatever  these  writers  have  transmitted  to  us  concerning 
any  particular  event. 

To  all  who  in  answer  to  his  inquiries  have  aided  the  author 
in  the  compilation  of  this  history,  he  presents  his  grateful 
acknowledgments.  A  special  tribute  is  due  to  one  who  has 
passed  suddenly  and  peacefully  into  the  invisible  world  since 
this  preface  was  begun.  Henry  A\Tiite  was,  of  all  men,  the  most 
learned  in  antiquarian  lore  pertaining  to  New  Haven.  Other 
occupations  obliged  him  to  relinquish  his  long-cherished  design 
of  writing  a  topographical  history  of  his  native  town ;  but  his- 
torical inquiries  were  to  the  last  his  recreation  and  delight.  He 
took  a  deep  interest  m  the  author's  work  as  soon  as  he  knew 
that  it  had  been  undertaken,  encouraged  him  to  believe  that  it 
would  be  a  pleasure  to  converse  frequently  concerning  it,  and 
on  one  occasion  spent  days  in  such  a  search  of  the  land-records 
as  only  he  was  competent  to  make.  In  the .  last  intemew 
which  the  author  had  with  him,  he  gave  vocal  expression  to  a 
desire  abeady  evident,  exclaiming  with  animation,  "I  wish  I 
could  help  you  more." 

New  Haven,  October,  i8&x 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I.  PACK. 

Condition  of  England  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  as  it 
affected  the  puritan  emigration  in  general       .       .       i 


• 


CHAPTER   II. 

Events  which  influenced  some  of  the  First  Planters  of 
New  Haven  to  remove  from  their  Native  Land  to 
New  England 28 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  Voyage  of  the  Hector 45 

CHAPTiER  IV. 
The  Winter  spent  in  Massachusetts 58 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  First  Year  at  Quinnipiac 69 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Foundations  laid  in  Church  and  State 93 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Division  of  Land 104 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Personnel  of  the  Plantation 112 

CHAPTER   IX. 

M I  lford.  — Guilford.  —  Southold.  —  Stamford       .       .       •    15S 

vu 


•  •  • 


VUl  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X.  PACK. 

Establishment  o?  a  Colonial  Government     .       .       .       •    177 

CHAPTER  XL 
Industrial  Pursuits 189 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Religion  and  Morals 225 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Learning 261 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Military  Affairs 293 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Aborigines 316 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Domestic  and  Social  Life 348 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

History  of  the  Colonial  Go\'ernment  to  the  Restoration 
OF  THE  Stuarts 385 

CHAPTER  XVIIL 
The  Stuarts  and  the  Regicides 419 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Connecticut  procures  a  Charter  which  covers  the  Ter- 
ritory OF  New  Ha\'en 445 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Controversy  with  Connecticut 463 

CHAPTER  XXL 
New  Haven  submits 509 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS,  ix 


APPENDIX. 

PAGB. 

I.  Autobiography  of  Michael  Wigglesworth    .       .       .531 
II.  Nathaniel  Rowe's  Letter  to  Winthrop    ...        535 

III.  Lamberton's  Ship 537 

IV.  Names  of  People  as  they  were  seated  in  the  New- 

Haven  Meeting-House  in  1647,  1 656*  AND  1662    .  542 

V.  Hopkins  Grammar  School 555 

VI.  New  Haven's  Remonstrance 561 

VIL  New  Haven's  Case  stated  .       . 566 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

1.  New  Haven  in  1641 Faces  title-page. 

2.  A  Barque  of  the  Seventeenth  Century      ...  55 

3.  Autographs  of  Davenport  and  Eaton       ....  67 

4.  Medal  commemorating  the  Settlement  of  New  Haven,  74 

5.  Autographs  of  Momaugin  and  his  Council      ...  88 

6.  Autographs  of  Montowese  and  Sawseunck  ...  89 

7.  A  Portrait  which  belonged  to  the  Eaton  Family       .  115 

8.  Portrait  of  John  Davenport 123 

9.  MiLFORD  IN  1646 Faces  page  155 

la  Town  Seal  of  Milford 157 

11.  A  Meeting-House  of  the  Seventeenth  Century     .       .  246 

12.  Ground  Plan  of  a  Meeting-House 249 

13.  Whitfield's  House  as  seen  from  the  South   .       .       .  349 

14.  Whitfield's  House  as  seen  from  the  West        .       .  349 
1$.  First  Floor  of  Whitfield's  House 351 

16.  Second  Floor  of  Whitfield's  House     .       .       .       .  351 

17.  Attic  Floor  of  Whitfield's  House 351 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 


CHAPTER  I. 


CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CEN- 
TURY, AS  IT  AFFECTED  THE  PURITAN  EMIGRATION 
IN    GENERAL. 

EMIGRATION  to  New  England  in  the  seventeenth 
century  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  discomfort  ex- 
perienced by  the  English  Puritans  in  their  native  land, 
rather  than  to  any  attractiveness  in  this  transatlantic 
wilderness.  It  is  difficult  for  those  who  from  their 
earliest  remembrance  have  been  surrounded  with  the 
security,  beauty,  and  plenty  enjoyed  by  the  posterity  of 
these  colonists,  to  conceive  of  the  same  territory  as  it 
was  seen  by  their  ancestors  when  they  arrived,  or  as 
it  presented  itself  to  the  eye  of  imagination  when  they 
decided  to  emigrate.  New  England  is  to  its  present 
inhabitants  their  pleasant  home ;  but  the  Englishmen, 
who  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  uncomfortable  in 
England,  loved  England  as  their  dear  native  land,  and 
thought  of  America  as  a  foreign  country,  and  as  such. 


2  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

destitute  of  the  attraction  and  charm  which  appertain 
to  the  idea  of  home. 

Moreover,  emigration  to  the  New  World  was  not 
merely  exile  from  a  land  they  were  reluctant  to  leave  : 
it  was  exposure  to  suffering  by  cold  and  hunger,  to 
peril  of  death  by  shipwreck,  by  wild  beasts,  and  by 
treacherous  savages.  Such  liabilities  are,  indeed,  not 
unattractive  to  men  in  whom  the  love  of  adventure 
predominates ;  but  the  English  Puritans  were  in  gen- 
eral as  free  from  that  restlessness  of  mind  which  seeks 
relief  in  excitement  as  any  people  in  the  world. 
Their  theology  furnishing  a  central  Being  whom  they 
acknowledged  as  infinitely  their  superior,  they  were 
content  to  rest  in  him,  and  so  had  inward  peace.  Re- 
ligion, inclining  them  to  sobriety  and  industry,  fostered 
the  love  of  home,  of  security,  and  of  comfort.  Individ- 
uals among  them  may  have  been  susceptible  to  the  love 
of  adventure  ;  but,  as  a  class,  the  planters  of  New  Eng- 
land were  not  men  naturally  inclined  to  desert  their 
homes,  and  expose  themselves  to  hardships  and  perils 
on  the  ocean  and  in  the  wilderness.  On  the  contrary, 
their  training  had  been  such  as  inclined  them  to  remain 
in  their  native  land.  This  is  true,  even  of  the  unmar- 
ried men  ;  but  the  reluctance  to  emigrate  was,  of  course, 
far  greater  when  one  must  expose  wife  and  children  to 
hardships  they  were  less  able  than  himself  to  endure. 

If  the  settlement  of  New  England  had  been  the 
result  of  mere  adventure,  its  history  would  have  had 
so  little  connection  with  that  of  the  mother-country, 
that  its  relation  might  properly  commence  with  the  first 
arrival  of  colonists ;  but  actually  there  is  such  a  con- 
.tinuity  of    history  between    the  emigration   and  the 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL,  3 

influences  which  led  to  it  as  requires  the  historian  of 
a  New  England  colony  to  discourse  of  England  more 
than  the  mere  title  of  his  work  would  seem  to  jus- 
tify. To  relate  the  history  of  New  Haven,  therefore, 
one  must  go  back  to  an  earlier  date  than  its  actual 
settlement. 

The  contest  between  arbitrary  and  constitutional 
government,  which  had  never  ceased  in  England  after 
King  John  signed  the  Magna  C/iarta^  raged  with  un- 
usual violence  while  the  throne  was  occupied  by  the 
Stuarts.  The  reign  of  the  Tudors  had  been  a  period 
of  comparative  rest ;  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  having  so 
weakened  the  great  barons,  who  in  earlier  times  made 
and  deposed  kings  at  their  pleasure,  and  the  introduc: 
tion  of  artillery  having  so  strengthened  the  monarch 
against  an  enemy  destitute  of  these  engines  of  destruc- 
tion, that,  from  Henry  the  Seventh  to  Elizabeth,  there 
was  but  faint  resistance  to  the  will  of  the  sovereign  by 
the  hereditary  lords  who  sat  in  the  upper  house  of 
Parliament.  By  the  transfer  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church,  another  check  on  the  royal  prerogative  had 
been  removed ;  so  that  the  lords  spiritual,  who  in  the 
olden  time  had  been  as  little  dependent  on  the  king  as 
the  lords  temporal,  were  now  subservient  to  the  power 
which  placed  them  in  office.  The  Tudors,  therefore, 
transmitted  to  their  successors  a  more  arbitrary  sceptre 
than  had  been  wielded  by  earlier  kings. 

But  the  time  of  the  Stuarts  was  less  favorable  than 
that  of  the  Tudors  for  maintaining  a  theory  and  prac- 
tice of  government  which  contravened  the  rights  of  the 
subject.     Formerly  the  great  barons  had  come  to  Par- 


4  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

liament  followed  by  hundreds  of  archers  and  speamien 
ready  to  back  their  lords  in  any  contest  which  might 
occur  ;  but  the  barons  only,  and  not  their  retainers,  had 
presumed  to  put  to  question  the  conduct  of  the  over- 
lord. Out  of  the  decay  of  this  feudal  baronage,  there 
had  gradually  grown  up  a  new  antagonist  to  despotism, 
which,  exhibiting  considerable  power  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  vigorously  encountered  the  house  of  Stuart 
at  its  accession,  and  suffered  no  permanent  defeat  till 
it  had  brought  a  king  of  England  to  the  scaffold. 

The  change  in  the  tenure  of  land  whereby  the  vassal 
had  become  a  farmer  and  in  some  instances  a  freeholder ; 
the  growth  of  towns  by  the  increase  of  manufactures 
and  of  commerce  ;  the  intellectual  activity  awakened  by 
the  revival  of  learning,  by  the  new  art  of  printing,  by 
the  reform  in  theology,  and  by  the  revolutionary  trans- 
fer of  the  supremacy  of  the  Church,  —  had  conspired  to 
lift  the  common  people  into  a  higher  position.  With 
this  elevation  of  the  common  people,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons rose  in  importance.  The  shires  and  towns,  which 
originally  were  invited  to  send  representatives  to  Par- 
liament,  that  through  them  they  might  give  consent  to 
taxes  which  the  king  wished  to  levy  not  only  upon  the 
greater  lords,  but  upon  the  whole  population,  at  first 
sent  men,  who,  having  no  ambition  to  figure  as  legis- 
lators, gladly  retired  to  their  homes  as  soon  as  they 
had  voted  the  supplies  required.  But  consent  to  taxa- 
tion was  sometimes  accompanied  with  a  statement  of 
grievances  ;  and  afterward,  when  the  Commons  had 
grown  in  power  and  courage,  was  withholdcn  till  a 
promise  of  redress  had  been  obtained.  At  first  the 
Commons  were  content  if  laws  were  enacted   by  the 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL.  5 

royal  authority  in  accordance  with  their  petitions,  but 
afterward  required  that  the  order  of  proceeding  should 
be  reversed,  so  that  all  legislation  must  originate  and 
receive  its  final  shape  in  Parliament. 

Whatever  resistance  had  been  offered  to  arbitrary 
government  during  the  reign  of  the  Tudors,  had  pro- 
ceeded, not  chiefly,  as  in  earlier  times,  from  the  House 
of  Lords,  but  chiefly  from  the  House  of  Commons,  rep- 
resenting a  power  already  great  and  constantly  increas- 
ing. There  had  been  a  change,  moreover,  in  the  mode 
in  which  acts  of  despotism  were  resisted ;  for  the  king 
no  longer  found  his  subjects  arrayed  in  arms  against 
him,  but  meeting  him,  whenever  he  asked  for  another 
supply  of  money,  with  a  demand  for  further  restriction 
on  his  prerogative.  Elizabeth,  the  last  of  the  Tudors, 
found  this  disposition  of  the  Commons  so  annoying, 
that  she  avoided,  as  much  as  possible,  giving  occasion 
for  such  conflicts ;  well  knowing  that  the  Crown,  if  de- 
pendent on  Parliament  for  supplies,  could  obtain  them 
only  by  concession.  By  avoiding  as  much  as  possible 
the  waste  of  war,  by  conducting  into  her  exchequer 
every  stream  of  tribute  which  could  be  controlled  with- 
out the  aid  of  the  Commons,  she  hoped  to  render 
herself  independent  of  Parliaments,  and  would  probably 
have  succeeded  but  for  the  wars  forced  upon  her,  in  the 
last  half  of  her  reign,  by  Mary  of  Scotland  and  Philip  of 
Spain. 

This  new  antagonist  to  arbitrary  government,  which 
had  become  somewhat  formidable  to  the  last  of  the 
Tudors,  continued  to  increase  in  courage  and  strength 
under  her  successor.  But  not  only  was  the  age  in  which 
the  Stuarts   reigned  less  favorable  than  that  of  the 


6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Tudors  to  the  theory  and  practice  of  arbitrary  govern- 
ment, but  the  two  families  differed  in  their  ability  to 
cope  with  this  new  antagonist  as  much  as  their  re- 
spective eras  differed  in  the  kind  of  ability  required. 
If  the  two  families  could  have  changed  places,  the 
Stuarts  might  perhaps  have  been  competent  to  deal 
with  such  Parliaments  as  assembled  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Seventh ;  and  the  Tudors  would  certainly 
have  shown  more  tact  than  the  Stuarts  did  in  contend- 
ing against  the  English  people  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

This  contest  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  English 
people,  on  account  of  its  bearing  on  emigration  to  New 
England  and  the  commencement  of  a  new  colony  at 
New  Haven,  we  shall  briefly  review. 

James  the  First  ascended  the  throne  of  Elizabeth  in 
the  belief  that  by  the  ordinance  of  God  he  was  entitled 
to  govern  without  regard  to  the  will  of  his  subjects. 
He  had  already  declared,  in  his  work  on  "  The  True  Law 
of  Free  Monarchy,"  that,  "although  a  good  king  will 
frame  his  actions  to  be  according  to  law,  yet  he  is  not 
bound  thereto  but  of  his  own  will  and  for  example- 
giving  to  his  subjects."  At  a  later  date,  he  said  in  a 
speech  in  the  Star-Chamber,  "As  it  is  atheism  and 
blasphemy  to  dispute  what  God  can  do,  so  it  is  pre- 
sumption and  a  high  contempt  in  a  subject,  to  dispute 
what  a  king  can  do,  or  to  say  that  a  king  cannot  do 
this  or  that."  Some  writers  attribute  to  him,  and  some 
to  his  son  Charles,  the  saying,  "  I  will  govern  according 
to  the  common  weal,  but  not  according  to  the  common 
will."  If  James  did  not  originate,  he  would  doubtless 
have  been  willing  to  adopt,  this  form  of  words. 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL,  7 

But,  though  the  new  king  was  known  to  entertain 
such  a  theory  of  kingship,  he  was  received  by  those  of 
his  subjects  who  held  the  opposite  sentiments  with  joy 
and  hope ;  for  he  was  no  more  objectionable  in  this 
respect  than  Elizabeth,  and  they  confidently  expected 
that  he  would  so  exercise  his  prerogative  as  to  relieve 
them  from  one  of  the  most  galling  of  their  burdens. 
Th^  Tudors  had  transferred  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church  from  the  pope  to  the  king,  but  had  shown 
themselves  as  arbitrary  in  their  ecclesiastical  as  in 
their  civil  supremacy,  legislating  without  the  concur- 
rence of  clergy  or  laity,  and  enforcing  the  strictest 
conformity  to  the  established  ritual.  The  spirit  in 
which  Elizabeth  ruled  the  Church  may  be  inferred  from 
the  note  she  sent  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  when  he  de- 
murred to  a  proposal  that  he  should  surrender  a  portion 
of  his  garden  because  a  favorite  of  the  queen  desired 
that  site  for  a  new  palace.  "Proud  prelate,"  she 
wrote,  "you  know  what  you  were  before  I  made  you 
what  you  are.  If  you  do  not  immediately  comply  with 
my  request,  by  God,  I  will  unfrock  you."  With  similar 
tyranny  she  had  refused  every  application  for  the  relief 
of  persons  who  had  scruples  in  regard  to  some  of  the 
ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  ritual  of  the  Church. 
These  Puritans  hoped,  that  as  James  had  been  educated 
in  Scotland,  where  the  Church  itself  had  controlled  its 
own  reformation,  and  had  carried  the  reform  farther 
than  the  Tudors  had  been  willing  to  carry  it  in  the 
Church  of  England,  they  should  find  the  new  king 
friendly  to  their  wish  for  further  progress  in  the  work 
of  amendment.  Possibly,  if  they  had  been  of  the  same 
political  principles  with  the  king,  they  might  have  ob- 
tained some  concessions. 


8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

But  he  well  knew  that  the  Puritans  were  to  a  man  of 
the  popular  party,  and  constituted  its  strength,  and  that 
on  the  other  hand  the  opponents  of  further  reform  in 
the  Church  were  supporters  of  the  royal  prerogative. 
His  choice  between  the  parties  was  soon  made,  and  at 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  in  the  first  year  of  his 
reign,  was  fully  declared.  In  his  journey  from  Scotland, 
a  petition  signed  by  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five 
English  clergymen  from  twenty-five  counties  had  been 
presented  to  him,  asking  for  a  confereftce  in  regard  to 
ecclesiastical  abuses.  In  response  to  this  petition,  four 
of  the  leading  Puritan  divines,  selected  by  the  king, 
were  invited  to  meet  some  dignitaries  of  the  Church 
opposed  to  all  change,  in  a  conference  before  the  king 
as  moderator.  But  the  conference  was  so  conducted  as 
to  show  that  the  king  had  already  decided  the  matter 
adversely  to  the  Puritans.  The  first  day  they  were  not 
admitted  to  his  presence,  the  time  being  spent  in  pre- 
liminary consultation  between  the  king  and  the  bishops. 
On  the  second  day,  after  the  Puritans  had  stated  their 
case,  and  their  opponents  had  replied,  the  king,  for- 
getting his  position  as  moderator,  took  up  the  argument 
for  conformity,  and  so  "  peppered  "  the  Puritans,  to  use 
his  own  expression,  that  they  were  dismayed  and  put 
to  silence. 

All  that  the  petitioners  could  obtain,  as  the  result  of 
this  conference,  was  that  candidates  for  confirmation 
should  be  previously  instructed  by  means  of  a  cate- 
chism to  be  prepared  for  that  purpose,  that  a  new  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  should  be  provided,  that  the 
Apocrypha  should  be  distinguished  from  the  canonical 
Scriptures,  that  a  few  explanatory  words  should  be  in- 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL.  9 

serted  in  the  Articles  of  Religion,  and  that  the  enforce- 
ment of  uniformity  might  be  delayed  to  give  time  for 
the  resolution  of  doubt  and  the  settlement  of  convic- 
tion. 

In  his  interview  with  the  bishops,  previous  to  the 
admission  of  the  Puritan  clergymen,  the  king  had  pro- 
pounded the  prejudice  he  himself  entertained  against 
private  baptism  by  persons  not  in  orders,  and  the 
Churchmen  had  consented  that  it  should  be  restricted 
to  cases  of  necessity.  His  own  objection  to  conformity 
to  the  Church  of  England  being  thus  taken  away,  he 
had  no  regard  to  the  scruples  of  others.  As  between 
the  two  Churches  of  England  and  of  Scotland,  he 
avowed  his  preference  for  the  former,  narvely  admitting 
that  the  preference  issued  from  his  political  principles, 
rather  than  from  his  religious  convictions.  "No 
bishop,'*  said  he,  "no  king.*'  "A  Scottish  presbytery 
agreeth  as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  with  the  devil.** 

But  James  had  no  occasion  for  instituting  such  a 
comparison  in  reply  to  the  petitioners  ;  for  the  petition 
expressly  disavowed  a  wish  for  "parity,**  and  asked 
only  for  changes  not  affecting  the  constitution  of  the 
Church.  The  Puritans  had  not  yet  become  disaffected 
toward  episcopacy ;  and,  if  James  had  granted  them  re- 
lief from  the  grievances  mentioned  in  their  petition, 
there  would  have  been  less  of  extravagance  in  the 
flattery  of  the  courtiers  who  styled  him  the  Scottish 
Solomon.  As  it  was,  he  resembled  Rehoboam  rather 
than  Solomon ;  driving  the  Puritans  into  such,  hostility 
to  prerogative,  both  royal  and  episcopal,  that  nothing 
less  would  content  them  than  "a  church  without  a 
bishop,  and  a  state  without  a  king.*'     It  appears  from 


lO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"  Certain  Considerations  Touching  the  Better  Pacifica- 
tion and  Edification  of  the  Church  of  England,"  written 
by  Lord  Bacon,  and  "  dedicated  to  his  most  excellent 
majesty,"  that  James,  like  Rehoboam,  came  to  his  decis- 
ion in  opposition  to  wise  counsel.  Bacon  says,  "  These 
ecclesiastical  matters  are  things  not  properly  appertain- 
ing to  my  profession ;  but  finding  that  it  is  in  many 
things  seen  that  a  man  that  standeth  off  and  somewhat 
removed  from  a  plot  of  ground  doth  better  survey  it 
and  discover  it  than  those  which  are  upon  it,  I  thought 
it  not  impossible,  but  that  I,  as  a  looker-on,  might  cast 
mine  eyes  upon  some  things  which  the  actors  them- 
selves, especially  some  being  interested,  some  being 
led  and  addicted,  some  declared  and  engaged,  did  not 
or  would  not  see."  He  inquires,  "Why  the  civil  state 
should  be  purged  and  restored  by  good  and  wholesome 
laws  made  every  third  or  fourth  year  in  parliament 
assembled,  devising  remedies  as  fast  as  time  breedeth 
mischief ;  and  contrariwise  the  ecclesiastical  state  should 
still  continue  upon  the  dregs  of  time,  and  receive  no 
alteration  ^ow  for  these  five  and  forty  years  or  more. 
But  if  it  be  said  to  me  that  there  is  a  difference  be- 
tween civil  causes  and  ecclesiastical,  they  may  as  well 
tell  me  that  churches  and  chapels  need  no  reparations, 
though  castles  and  houses  do :  whereas,  commonly,  to 
speak  truth,  dilapidations  of  the  inward  and  spiritual 
edifications  of  the  church  of  God  are  in  all  times  as 
great  a^  the  outward  and  material." 

The  first  parliament  in  the  reign  of  the  new  king  met 
a  few  weeks  after  the  conference  at  Hampton  Court. 
A  majority  of  the  lower  house  were  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  Puritan  clergy  in  desiring  further  reformation 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL,  1 1 

of  the  Church  ;  and  some  who  were  personally  indiffer- 
ent to  the  ceremonies  and  other  matters  in  controversy 
were  disposed  to  side  with  the  aggrieved  party,  either 
on  the  ground  that  rings,  surplices,  and  crosses  were 
important  to  those  who  esteemed  them  important,  or 
that,  by  favoring  the  Puritans,  they  might  obtain  from 
them  more  aid  in  the  impending  contest  between  the 
Crown  and  the  Commons.  The  speaker,  in  his  first 
address  to  the  king,  took  occasion  to  affirm  that  "  by 
the  power  of  your  majesty's  great  and  high  court  of 
parliament  only,  new  laws  are  to  be  instituted,  imper- 
fect laws  reformed,  and  inconvenient  laws  abrogated ; " 
that  "  no  such  law  can  be  instituted,  reformed,  or  abro- 
gated, but  by  the  unity  of  the  Commons'  agreement, 
the  Lords*  accord,  and  your  majesty's  royal  and  regal 
assent ;"  that  "this  court  standeth  compounded  of  two 
powers  ;  the  one  ordinary,  the  other  absolute  :  ordinary 
in  the  Lords'  and  Commons'  proceedings,  but  in  your 
highness  absolute,  either  negatively  to  frustrate  or 
aflfirmatively  to  confirm,  but  not  to  institute." 

In  making  up  the  roll  of  the  House,  it  was  found  that 
the  king  had  already  decided  that  one  of  the  persons 
returned  as  elected  was  ineligible,  and  had  ordered  a 
new  election,  so  that  there  were  two  claimants  of  the 
seat.  The  House  insisted  on  its  privilege  of  determin- 
ing its  own  membership  in  all  cases  of  contested  elec- 
tions, but  compromised  with  the  king'by  excluding  both 
claimants  with  the  consent  of  the  first  chosen,  and 
ordering  a  third  election.  With  great  copiousness  of 
courteous  speech  they  established  so  firmly  the  privi- 
I  lege  of  the  House  to  determine  contested  elections, 
that  it  has  never  since  been  brought  in  question. 


12  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  a  committee  reported  a  form  for 
a  petition  to  his  majesty,  in  which  they  say,  "We  have 
thought  it  expedient,  rather  by  this  our  humble  peti- 
tion to  recommend  to  your  majesty's  godly  considera- 
tion certain  matters  of  grievance  resting  in  your  royal 
power  and  princely  zeal,  either  to  abrogate  or  moderate, 
than  to  take  the  public  discussing  of  the  same  unto 
ourselves ;  to  the  end  (if  it  so  seem  good  to  your  high- 
ness) we  may  from  the  sacred  fountain  of  your  ma- 
jesty's niost  royal  and  religious  heart,  wholly  and  only 
derive  such  convenient  remedy  and  relief  therein  as  to 
your  princely  wisdom  may  seem  most  meet.  The  mat- 
ters of  grievance  (that  we  be  not  troublesome  to  your 
majesty)  are  these :  the  pressing  the  use  of  certain 
rites  and  ceremonies  in  this  Church,  as  the  cross  in 
baptism,  the  wearing  of  the  surplice  in  ordinary  parish 
churches,  and  the  subscription  required  of  the  ministers 
further  than  is  commanded  by  the  laws  of  the  realm ; 
things  which,  by  long  experience,  have  been  found  to  be 
the  occasion  of  such  difference,  trouble,  and  contention 
in  this  Church,  as  thereby  divers  profitable  and  painful 
ministers,  not  in  contempt  of  authority  or  desire  of 
novelty,  as  they  sincerely  profess  and  we  are  verily 
persuaded,  but  upon  conscience  toward  God,  refusing 
the  same,  some  of  good  desert  have  been  deprived, 
others  of  good  expectation  withheld  from  entering  into 
the  ministry."  It  is  not  certain  that  this  petition  was 
ever  presented  to  the  king ;  but  he  must  have  known 
that  it  was  on  the  way,  when,  on  the  26th  of  the  same 
month,  he  sent  a  letter  to  the  House  declining  to  re- 
ceive a  subsidy,  which  all  the  world  knew  would  be 
granted  only  in  return  for  the  redress  of  grievances. 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL,  1 3 

Meantime  the  House  had  sent  to  the  king  a  letter 
styled  "  An  Apology  Touching  Their  Privileges,"  in 
which  they  complain,  with  great  copiousness  of  respect- 
ful language,  of  the  wrong  which  had  been  done  to  his 
majesty  by  misinformation,  touching  the  estate  of  his 
subjects  and  the  privileges  of  the  House,  and  "  disclosing 
unto  your  majesty  the  truth  of  such  matters  as  hitherto 
by  misinformation  hath  been  suppressed  or  perverted." 

On  the  7th  of  July  the  House  was  prorogued ;  and 
when  it  again  assembled  in  November,  1605,  the  discov- 
ery of  the  gunpowder-plot  had  hushed  the  strife  be- 
tween the  Puritans  and  the  king,  uniting  all  Protes- 
tants in  a  common  enmity  against  Papists.  But  in 
subsequent  sessions  the  Commons  found  so  many 
grievances  to  be  redressed  before  supplies  could  be 
granted,  that  the  king  preferred  to  dissolve  the  Parlia- 
ment in  February,  161 1,  rather  than  fill  his  exchequer 
by  further  sacrifices  of  his  prerogative. 

In  April,  1614,  having  first  by  private  negotiation 
secured  a  promise  of  aid  from  some  who  had  been  lead- 
ers of  the  popular  party,  the  king  ventured  to  call  his 
second  Parliament,  but  the  experiment  proved  a  failure ; 
the  Commons,  even  after  the  king  had  sent  a  message 
requesting  that  a  supply  might  be  granted  and  threat- 
ening to  dissolve  the  Parliament  if  they  refused,  voting 
to  postpone  supply  till  their  grievances  were  redressed. 
The  Parliament  was  accordingly  dissolved  just  two 
months  after  it  began  to  sit. 

The  Parliament  which  assembled  in  January,  1621, 
was  at  first  on  good  terms  with  the  monarch,  who  in 
the  opening  speech,  acknowledging  that  he  had  been 
misled  by  evil  counsellors,  made  fair  promises  for  the 


14  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

future.  The  two  parties  were  drawn  together  by  their 
common  sympathy  with  the  king's  son-in-law,  the  Elect- 
or Palatine,  involved  in  a  quarrel  with  the  German 
emperor,  which  threatened  to  deprive  him  of  his  hered- 
itary dominions.  The  king  naturally  desired  to  assist 
the  husband  of  his  daughter  and  the  father  of  her  chil- 
dren to  preserve  his  patrimony ;  and  the  people  sympa- 
thized with  the  elector  as  the  champion  of  Protestant- 
ism, overborne  by  the  combined  forces  of  Romanism. 
The  Commons  at  once  voted  supplies  for  carrying  on 
war  in  aid  of  the  elector.  But,  before  the  expiration  of 
the  year,  the  king  and  the  Commons  were  again  at  vari- 
ance ;  he  rebuking  them  for  meddling  with  matters  of 
state  which  did  not  concern  them,  and  declaring  him- 
self "very  free  and  able  to  punish  any  man's  misde- 
meanors in  Parliament,  as  well  during  their  sitting  as 
after ; "  and  they  responding  with  a  formal  protest  as 
follows  :  viz.,  "  That  the  liberties,  franchises,  privileges, 
and  jurisdictions  of  Parliament  are  the  ancient  and 
undoubted  birthright  and  inheritance  of  the  subjects  of 
England ;  and  that  the  arduous  and  urgent  affairs  con- 
cerning the  king,  state,  and  the  defence  of  the  realm 
and  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  making  and 
maintenance  of  laws  and  redress  of  mischiefs  and  griev- 
ances which  daily  happen  within  this  realm,  are  proper 
subjects  and  matter  of  counsel  and  debate  in  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  that,  in  the  handling  and  proceeding  of  those 
businesses,  every  member  of  the  House  hath,  and  of 
right  ought  to  have,  freedom  of  speech  to  propound, 
treat,  reason,  and  bring  to  conclusion  the  same ;  that  the 
Commons  in  Parliament  have  like  liberty  and  freedom 
to  treat  of  these  matters  in  such  order  as  in  their  judg- 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL.  1 5 

ments  shall  seem  fittest ;  and  that  every  such  member 
of  the  said  House  hath  like  freedom  from  all  impeach- 
ment, imprisonment,  and  molestation  (other  than  by  the 
censure  of  the  House  itself),  for  or  concerning  any  bill, 
speaking,  reasoning,  or  declaring  of  any  matter  or  mat- 
ters touching  the  Parliament  or  Parliament  business ; 
and  that,  if  any  of  the  said  members  be  complained  of 
and  questioned  for  any  thing  said  or  done  in  Parliament, 
the  same  is  to  be  showed  to  the  king,  by  the  advice  and 
assent  of  all  the  Commons,  before  the  king  give  cre- 
dence to  any  private  informations." 

This  formal  protest  having  been  recorded  in  the 
journal  of  the  House,  the  king  erased  it  with  his  own 
hand,  and  a  few  days  afterward  dissolved  the  Parlia- 
ment. 

The  next  Parliament  met  in  February,  1624,  was  pro- 
rogued in  May,  and  dijd  not  again  assemble,  being  dis- 
solved by  the  king's  death  on  the  27th  of  March,  1625. 
During  its  brief  session,  unusual  concord  prevailed 
between  the  king  and  the  Commons,  by  reason  of  war 
with  Spain,  which  religious  animosity  rendered  popu- 
lar ;  and  the  more  so,  that  the  war  had  been  preceded 
by  an  apprehension  that  a  Spanish  princess  would 
become  the  wife  of  the  heir  to  the  British  crown.  The 
Commons  voted  large  supplies  for  carrying  on  the  war, 
and  with  the  more  alacrity,  because  the  king  had 
himself  proposed  that  the  money  should  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  a  committee  of  Parliament,  to  be  expended 
by  them,  and  not  into  the  royal  exchequer. 

Charles  the  First  was  constrained  by  his  need  of 
money  to  call  a  Parliament  immediately  upon  his  ac- 
cession, but  soon  quarrelled  with  the  Commons,  as  his 


l6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

father  had  done,  about  his  prerogative  and  their  privi- 
leges. Putting  an  end  to  their  sessions,  he  called 
another  Parliament  in  the  succeeding  year,  but  with  no 
improvement  in  the  state  of  feeling  between  the  king 
and  the  Commons;  and  in  a  few  months  the  second 
Parliament  of  this  reign  came  to  an  end.  The  king, 
left  without  revenue  by  the  refusal  of  Parliament  to 
vote  supplies,  not  only  laid  and  collected  arbitrary 
taxes,  but  exacted  from  the  nobility,  the  gentry,  the 
clergy,  and  the  merchants,  forced  loans.  Those  who 
refused  to  lend  were  imprisoned,  and,  when  they  claimed 
their  liberty  by  liabeas  corpus^  found  that  Magna  Cluxrta 
was  of  no  avail  against  the  will  of  the  king. 

In  this  state  of  things,  Charles  called  his  third  Par- 
liament in  1628;  being  constrained  to  such  a  course  by 
the  insufficiency  of  the  revenue  collected  by  illegal 
means.  When  the  Commons  jissembled  on  the  17th 
of  March,  they  came  with  the  determination  not  to  vote 
supplies  unless  the  king  would  promise  to  put  an  end  to 
his  arbitrary  measures.  Early  in  the  session,  they 
passed  the  following  resolutions,  without  a  dissenting 
voice :  — 

'•  I.  That  no  freeman  ought  to  be  committed  or  de- 
tained in  prison,  or  otherwise  restrained,  by  command  of 
the  king,  or  the  Privy  Council,  or  any  other,  unless  some 
cause  of  the  commitment,  detainer,  or  restraint  be  ex- 
pressed, for  which  by  law  he  ought  to  be  committed,  de- 
tained, or  restrained.  2.  That  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
cannot  be  denied,  but  ought  to  be  granted  to  every  man 
that  is  committed  or  detained  in  prison  or  otherwise 
restrained  by  command  of  the  king,  Privy  Council,  or 
any  other ;  he  praying  the  same.     3.  That  if  a  freeman 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL.  I  / 

be  committed,  or  detained  in  prison,  or  otherwise  re- 
strained, by  command  of  the  king.  Privy  Council,  or  any 
other,  no  cause  of  such  commitment,  &c.,  being  ex- 
pressed, and  the  same  be  returned  upon  an  habeas 
corpus  granted  for  the  said  party,  that  then  he  ought 
to  be  delivered,  or  bailed.  4.  That  the  ancient  and 
undoubted  right  of  every  freeman  is,  that  he  hath  a  full 
and  absolute  property  in  his  goods  and  estate ;  and  that 
no  tax,  tallage,  loan,  benevolence,  or  other  like  charges, 
ought  to  be  commanded  or  levied  by  the  king  or  his 
ministers,  without  common  assent  of  Pariiament." 

A  few  days  after  this  declaration  of  the  right  of 
English  subjects,  they  presented  a  petition  to  the  king, 
in  which  they  showed  how  all  these  rights  of  the  sub- 
ject had  been  recognized  in  Magna  Charta,  and  in  acts 
of  Parliament  subscribed  by  his  majesty's  royal  pred- 
ecessors ;  declared  that  they  had  all  been  violated  of 
late  by  forced  loans,  by  imprisonment  without  cause 
shown,  by  disregard  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus^  by 
billeting  soldiers  and  mariners  in  private  houses,  and 
by  the  unnecessary  establishment  of  martial  law.  The 
petition  closed  with  a  prayer  that  such  illegalities  and 
wrongs  might  cease. 

The  answer  of  the  king  was  regarded  as  evasive  ;  and 
both  houses  of  Parliament  joined  in  a  request  that  his 
majesty  would  return  a  more  explicit  reply  to  the  Peti- 
tion of  Right.  Charles,  thus  harassed,  came  into  the 
House  of  Lords,  commanded  the  Commons  to  attend 
upon  him  there,  and  gave  his  assent  to  the  petition  in 
the  customary  form,  declaring  that  in  his  former  answer 
he  had  had  no  intention  of  withholding  any  thing  con- 
ceded in  the  latter.     Three  days  later,  to  accelerate  a 


1 8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

vote  of  supplies,  he  expressed  his  willingness  that  the 
Petition  of  Right  should  be  recorded,  not  only  in  both 
houses  of  Parliament,  but  in  all  the  courts  of  West- 
minster, and  that  it  should  be  printed  for  his  honor,  and 
the  content  and  satisfaction  of  his  subjects. 

The  Commons,  pleased  with  such  a  triumph  of  law 
over  autocracy,  immediately  voted  a  liberal  sum  for 
supplying  the  king's  necessities,  and  were  proceeding 
to  pass  an  act  for  a  further  supply  by  a  grant  of  tonnage 
and  poundage,  when  the  incorrigible  Stuart,  learning 
that  the  grant  was  to  be  accompanied  by  a  remon- 
strance against  the  illegal  collection  of  the  tax  before  it 
had  been  granted,  prorogued  the  Parliament  in  a  speech 
in  which  he  denied  that  in  giving  assent  to  the  Petition 
of  Right  he  had  debarred  himself  from  exacting  ton- 
nage and  poundage  by  virtue  of  his  royal  prerogative, 
and  commanded  all  present  to  take  notice,  that  the 
interpretation  he  was  giving  to  the  instrument  was 
its  true  meaning  and  intent ;  adding,  "  But  especially 
you,  my  lords  the  judges,  for  to  you  only,  under  me, 
belongs  the  interpretation  of  laws."  After  the  proroga- 
tion this  violent  speech  was,  by  the  king's  command, 
entered  on  the  journal  of  the  House ;  and  by  the  same 
authority  it  was  printed  along  with  the  Petition  of 
Right  and  the  unsatisfactory  answer  it  had  at  first  re- 
ceived, no  mention  being  made  of  the  explicit  assent 
afterward  given  in  the  customary  formula  of  royal 
ratification. 

When  the  Parliament  again  assembled  on  the  20th  of 
January,  1629,  the  nation  was  greatly  irritated,  not  only 
by  the  collection  of  tonnage  and  poundage  and  other 
illegal  taxes,  but  by  the  excessive  and  cruel  punishments 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL,  1 9 

unjustly,  and  without  warrant  of  law,  inflicted  by  the 
Star-Chamber  and  the  High  Commission.  Hitherto  the 
questions  at  issue  between  the  king  and  the  Commons 
had  pertained  chiefly  to  civil  rights :  but,  during  the 
contest,  the  assertors  of  civil  rights  and  the  advocates 
of  further  reform  in  the  Church  had  more  and  more 
coalesced ;  the  Puritans  being  to  a  man  opposed  to 
despotism,  and  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party,  if  they 
had  no  positive  and  earnest  convictions  in  regard  to  the 
religious  questions  at  issue,  taking  sides  with  the  Puri- 
tans because  the  Puritans  had  taken  sides  with  them. 

Similar  reasons  had  drawn  the  king  into  a  closer 
connection  with  those  Churchmen  who  insisted  on  the 
retention  of  the  ceremonies  obnoxious  to  Puritans,  and 
on  the  enforcement  of  an  absolute  conformity.  The 
king  favored  such  men  as  Laud  and  his  co-adjutors  in 
their  churchmanship,  because  they  supported  him  in  his 
attempt  to  trample  upon  the  constitution  and  the  laws. 
Through  Laud,  who  since  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  had  become  his  principal  adviser,  Charles 
enjoined  upon  the  clergy  to  preach  the  merit  of  paying 
taxes  and  making  loans  not  authorized  by  Parliament. 
When  Archbishop  Abbott  refused  to  license  the  print- 
ing of  one  of  the  sermons  thus  originated,  he  was  sus- 
pended from  the  functions  of  his  office,  and  his  authority 
was  transferred  to  a  commission  over  which  Laud  pre- 
sided. 

The  two  parties  being  thus  at  variance  on  ecclesias- 
tical as  well  as  political  questions.  Parliament  had  no 
sooner  assembled  than  the  Comnwns  began  to  seek  the 
redress  of  grievances  relating  to  religion,  as  well  as  of 
such  as  related  to  person  and  property.     It  had  been 


20  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

discovered  that  in  the  negotiations  for  the  marriage  of 
Charles  with  Henrietta  Maria,  both  he  and  his  father 
had  secretly  signed  a  promise  that  not  only  the  queen 
and  her  attendants,  but  all  Englishmen  as  well,  should 
be  exempt  from  the  operation  of  the  laws  of  England 
which  prohibited  the  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
worship.  It  was  seen  that  the  Church  of  England, 
under  the  direction  of  Laud,  was  drifting  toward  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  thus  becoming  more  unsatisfac- 
tory to  Puritans  than  it  had  been  under  the  administra- 
tion of  Abbott.  The  latter  prelate  had  been  lenient 
toward  those  who  had  conscientious  scruples  about  cere- 
monies :  Laud,  on  the  other  hand,  not  only  exacted  the 
most  rigid  conformity  to  the  ceremonies  legally  required, 
but  procured  an  order  of  the  king's  privy  council,  or- 
daining changes  in  the  position  and  furniture  of  the 
communion-table,  exceedingly  unpalatable  to  those  who 
already  experienced  sufficient  difficulty  in  overcoming 
their  scruples  and  persuading  themselves  to  conform. 

On  the  2Sth  of  February  a  committee  previously 
appointed  for  the  purpose  made  a  report  on  religious 
grievances.  They  complained,  among  other  things,  that 
books  in  favor  of  popery  were  licensed  by  the  bishops, 
and  books  against  popery  were  suppressed ;  that  candle- 
sticks were  placed  on  the  communion-table,  which  they 
said  was  now  wickedly  called  a  high  altar ;  that  pictures, 
images,  and  lights  were  used  in  the  worship  of  the  Church ; 
that  clergymen  celebrating  divine  service  crossed  them- 
selves at  every  change  of  posture,  and  in  time  of  prayer 
turned  their  backs  toward  the  people,  as  if  the  eastward 
position  were  essential ;  that,  these  ritualistic  practices 
being  enjoined  upon  them  by  their  bishops,  learned, 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL.  21 

orthodox,  and  pious  ministers,  who  could  not  in  con- 
science obey  the  injunction,  were  brought  to  grief  for 
disobedience. 

The  king,  enraged  at  this  attack  upon  his  hierarchical 
allies,  endeavored  to  prevent  action  on  the  report  by 
ordering  the  speaker  to  pronounce  the  House  adjourned. 
But,  the  House  claiming  that  it  could  be  adjourned  only 
by  its  own  act,  some  of  the  members  held  the  speaker 
in  the  chair,  while  others  locked  the  door,  and  brought 
the  keys  to  the  table.  The  speaker  declaring  that  he 
dare  not  and  would  not  put  to  vote  any  motion,  seeing 
that  the  House  was  adjourned  by  the  king's  command, 
one  of  the  members  read  a  protest  to  which  others 
assented,  and  the  House  then  adjourned  itself  to  the 
lOth  of  March.  On  the  loth  of  March  the  king  dis- 
solved the  Parliament,  in  a  speech  in  which  he  threat- 
ened with  his  vengeance  those  vipers^  as  he  called  them, 
who  had  been  most  active  in  resisting  his  adjournment 
of  the  House  of  Commons. 

His  third  Parliament  being  thus  brought  to  an  end, 
Charles  was  by  this  time  so  disgusted,  that  in  a  procla- 
mation issued  twelve  days  afterward  he  said,  "  We  have 
showed,  by  our  frequent  meeting  our  people,  our  love  to 
the  use  of  Parliaments ;  yet,  the  late  abuse  having  for 
the  present  driven  us  unwillingly  out  of  that  course,  we 
shall  account  it  presumption  for  any  to  prescribe  any 
time  unto  us  for  Parliaments,  the  calling,  continuing,  and 
dissolving  of  which  is  always  in  our  power."  So  deep- 
rooted  was  his  dislike,  that  eleven  years  intervened  be 
tween  his  third  and  his  fourth  Parliaments,  during  which 
time  he  levied  taxes,  and  exacted  benevolences  and  loans 
at  his  pleasure,  punishing  with  imprisonment  and  heavy 


22  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

fines  those  who  refused  to  open  their  purses  at  his 
arbitrary  demand. 

The  Puritan  emigration  from  England,  for  which  we 
are  endeavoring  to  account,  commenced  while  Charles 
was  holding  his  third  Parliament.  Plymouth  had,  indeed, 
been  settled  before  this  time  and  before  Charles  came 
to  the  throne ;  but  the  Pilgrims  who  planted  that  colony 
had  been  already  exiles  from  their  native  land  for  twelve 
years  before  they  crossed  the  ocean.  The  successful 
prosecution  of  that  enterprise  for  eight  years  had  now 
demonstrated  the  feasibility  of  establishing  such  planta- 
tions on  the  American  coast,  and  had  suggested  to  the 
Puritans  of  England  that  by  emigrating  to  America 
they  might  not  only  escape  from  their  foes,  but  estab- 
lish, in  a  new  world,  those  principles  of  civil  freedom 
and  pure  worship  for  which  they  were  contending  with 
little  success  in  their  native  land. 

The  first  company  who  left  their  homes  in  the  mother- 
country  to  establish  a  Puritan  plantation  in  New  Eng- 
land sailed  in  1628,  and,  under  the  leadership  of  Endi- 
cott,  established  themselves  at  Salem.  They  had  been 
twice  re-enforced,  when  a  much  larger  company  came 
with  Winthrop  in  1630,  and  settled  first  at  Charles- 
town,  and  afterward  at  Boston.  To  induce  Winthrop 
and  other  gentlemen  of  capacity  and  wealth  to  engage 
personally  in  this  enterprise,  the  Company  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  generously  offered  to  transfer  to  New 
England  the  government  of  the  plantations  which  had 
been  or  might  be  formed  there,  by  electing  a  majority 
of  its  directors  and  its  governor  from  among  those 
who  would  engage  to  emigrate  with  their  families  and 
estates. 


PURITAN  EMIGRA  TION  IN  GENERAL,  23 

From  this  time  onward  the  current  of  emigration  was 
broad  and  rapid,  stimulated  as  well  by  the  descriptions 
of  the  New  World  which  the  first  adventurers  sent 
back  as  by  the  troubles  in  the  mother-country.  So 
general  was  the  interest  in  these  reports  that  three 
editions  of  "New  England's  Plantation'*  by  Rev. 
Francis  Higginson,  who  arrived  in  Salem  in  1629,  were 
printed  during  the  following  year.  The  stream  thus 
set  in  motion  did  not  cease  to  flow  till  the  civil  war  had 
given  the  Puritans  hope  of  relief  without  exile  from 
their  native  land. 

The  project  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a 
colony  at  New  Haven  was  undertaken  in  1636.  Seven 
years  had  then  elapsed  without  a  parliament ;  the  king 
was  evidently  determined  not  to  call  another :  without 
a  parliament  no  check  could  be  put  on  arbitrary  govern- 
ment. To  all  other  illegal  methods  of  replenishing  the 
exchequer,  including  the  sale  of  monopolies,  the  de- 
mand of  loans  and  benevolences,  the  collection  of  ton- 
nage and  poundage,  the  imposition  of  arbitrary  and 
excessive  fines,  another  had  now  been  added  called 
ship-money ;  the  first  writ  for  levying  it  in  London 
being  issued  in  1634,  and  the  exaction  being  extended 
to  the  whole  country  in  the  following  year.  The  tax 
was  small  in  amount ;  for  John  Hampden  (who,  having 
already  suffered  imprisonment  for  not  submitting  to  a 
forced  loan,  now  refused  to  pay  ship-money)  was  a  man 
of  large  wealth,  and  yet  was  assessed  at  only  twenty 
shillings.  But,  though  small  in  amount,  this  new  tax 
'excited  earnest  indignation  in  the  minds  of  thoughtful 
patriots,  because  it  was  laid  without  the  consent  of 
those  who  were  to  pay  it. 


24  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

The  Star-Chamber,  instead  of  relaxing  its  severity, 
had  of  late  in  numerous  instances  punished  with  ruin- 
ous fines,  and  with  imprisonment  of  which  no  one  could 
foresee  the  end,  those  who  resisted  the  exactions  of  the 
government,  or  even  ventured  to  speak  of  them  with 
too  strong  disapproval.  Thus  in  1630,  Richard  Cham- 
bers, a  merchant  of  London,  smarting  under  a  sense  of 
the  wrong  he  suffered  in  having  a  bale  of  silk  confis- 
cated because  he  would  not  pay  the  duty  illegally  de- 
manded, was  heard  to  say  that  merchants  had  more 
encouragement,  and  were  less  screwed  and  wrung,  in 
Turkey  than  in  England.  For  this  ebullition  of  temper 
he  was  fined  two  thousand  pounds.  In  the  same  year 
Alexander  Leighton,  a  Scotch  clergyman,  was  sentenced, 
for  publishing  a  book  entitled,  "  An  Appeal  to  the  Par- 
liament ;  or,  Sion's  Plea  against  Popery,"  to  be  twice 
publicly  whipped,  to  stand  two  hours  in  the  pillory,  to 
have  his  ears  cut  off,  to  have  his  nostrils  slit,  to  be 
branded  in  the  cheek  with  the  letters  S.S.  to  denote  a 
sower  of  sedition,  and  to  be  imprisoned  for  life.  He  lay 
in  prison  ten  years,  and  until  he  was  released  by  the 
Long  Parliament.  In  1634  Prynne,  a  Puritan  lawyer, 
being  prosecuted  before  the  same  tribunal  for  publish- 
ing a  book  against  plays,  masquerades,  &c.,  which  was 
thought  to  reflect  severely  upon  the  royal  court  where 
such  amusements  were  in  vogue,  was  sentenced  to  pay 
a  fine  of  five  thousand  pounds,  to  stand  twice  in  the 
pillory,  to  lose  his  ears,  and  to  remain  a  prisoner  for 
life.  He  employed  the  leisure  of  his  prison  in  writing 
another  book,  for  which  he  suffered,  by  decree  of  the 
Star-Chamber,  another  mutilation.  This  second  pun- 
ishment, however,  did  not  take  place  till  after  the  com- 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL.  2$ 

pany,  which  planted  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  had  left 
behind  them  the  shores  of  England. 

The  High  Commission,  which  had  cognizance  of 
ecclesiastical  offences,  punished  the  Puritans  for  disobe- 
dience to  bishops,  as  the  Star-Chamfeer  did  for  ofEences 
against  the  royal  prerogative.  This  tribunal  did  not, 
indeed,  mutilate  its  victims,  and  so  far  forth  was  less 
inhuman  than  the  Star-Chamber.  The  fines  which  it 
exacted  from  non-conformists  for  their  irregularities 
were  not  so  large  as  the  fines  imposed  by  the  other 
court,  or  by  this  same  court  in  cases  of  immorality  com- 
mitted by  rich  men ;  but  the  reason  doubtless  was,  that 
the  non-conformists  were  men  of  moderate  means. 
Those  who  suffered  for  non-conformity  were,  in  many 
cases,  clergymen  without  income  save  what  they  de- 
rived from  their  benefices.  To  such  a  man,  the  sentence 
of  the  ecclesiastical  court,  ejecting  him  from  his  living, 
was  as  severe  as  a  ruinous  fine  would  be  upon  a  mer- 
chant. But,  in  truth,  fines  and  imprisonment  were  often 
added  to  the  sentence  of  deprivation  which  took  from 
the  clergyman  and  his  family  their  daily  bread.  For 
example,  Peter  Smart,  a  prebendary  of  Durham,  having 
inveighed  in  a  sermon  against  innovations  recently 
made  in  his  cathedral,  such  as  the  change  of  the  com- 
munion-table into  an  altar,  and  the  restoration  of  some 
images  and  pictures  which  had  been  removed  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  was  fined  five  hundred  pounds,  com- 
mitted to  prison,  and  ordered  to  recant.  For  neglect- 
ing to  recant,  he  was  fined  again,  deprived  of  his  pre- 
bend, degraded  from  orders,  and  excommunicated.' 
He  was  at  last  released  by  the  Long  Parliament,  after 
eleven  years  confinement. 

*  Fuller's  Church  History. 


26  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  elevation  of  Laud  to  the  primacy,  in  1633,  in- 
creased the  troubles  of  the  Puritans.  Abbot  had 
shielded  them  in  his  own  diocese,  and  had  encouraged, 
at  least  indirectly,  other  bishops  to  do  likewise.  But 
now  there  was  no  such  shield  in  any  diocese  from  the 
fury  with  which  Laud  assailed,  not  only  all  who  deviated 
in  any  particular  from  the  ceremonies  prescribed  by 
law,  but  even  those  who,  being  careful  to  conform  in  all 
things  legally  required,  opposed  the  changes  in  the  fur- 
niture and  services  of  the  church,  ordained  by  the  Privy 
Council  at  the  instigation  of  Laud.  Puritan  clergymen 
in  larger  numbers  than  before  were  imprisoned.  Some, 
having  reason  to  expect  a  similar  fate,  concealed  them- 
selves and,  when  opportunity  offered,  secretly  embarked 
for  New  England.  It  was  under  pressure  of  this  kind 
that  most  of  the  ministers  who  came  over  between  1628 
and  1640  decided  to  leave  their  native  land. 

Though  the  clergy  were  more  exposed  than  the  laity 
to  the  storm  of  persecution,  the  latter  were  not  exempt. 
If  the  spies  of  the  High  Commission  discovered  a  con- 
venticle, —  as  a  worshipping  assembly  in  which  the  cere- 
monies did  not  conform  to  those  of  the  Church  of 
England  was  called,  —  not  only  the  officiating  minister, 
but  all  who  were  present,  were  seized,  and  imprisoned 
till  on  their  oaths  they  had  purged  themselves  of  all 
non-conformity,  or  till  the  court  was  pleased  to  release 
them. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  England  which  induced 
the  Puritan  emigrants  to  exile  themselves  from  their 
native  country,  and  encounter  the  perils  of  the  sea  and 
of    the  wilderness.      Colonization    produced   by  such 


PURITAN  EMIGRATION  IN  GENERAL.  2/ 

causes  peopled  New  England  with  a  superior  popula- 
tion. The  colonists  were,  as  a  class,  intelligent,  moral, 
religious,  heroic.  "  God  sifted  a  whole  nation,  that  he 
might  send  choice  grain  over  into  this  wilderness."  ' 

'  William  Stoughton,  Election  Sermon,  1668. 


CHAPTER  IL 

EVENTS  WHICH  INFLUENCED  SOME  OF  THE  FIRST  PLANT- 
ERS OF  NEW  HAVEN  TO  REMOVE  FROM  THEIR  NATIVE 
LAND   TO   NEW   ENGLAND. 

ON  the  sixth  day  of  October,  1624,  a  general  vestry 
was  holden  in  St.  Stephen's  Church,  Coleman 
Street,  London,  for  the  election  of  a  new  incumbent ; 
this  being  one  of  the  few  parishes  in  England  where 
the  right  of  presentation  is  vested  in  the  parishioners. 
Of  seventy-three  votes,  John  Davenport,  a  curate  in  a 
contiguous  parish,  received  all  but  three  or  four.  He 
had  held  this  curacy  about  six  years,  and  was  now  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  ablest  preachers  in  the  city.  "  He 
was  reported,"  says  the  Bishop  of  London,  in  reply  to 
a  letter  in  which  Sir  Richard  Conway  interceded  for 
Davenport's  induction,  "to  be  factious  and  popular,' 
and  to  draw  after  him  great  congregations  and  assem- 
blies of  common  and  mean  people."  Endowed  with 
imagination,  earnest  in  his  piety,  Calvinistic  in  his 
theology,  possessing  the  full  strength  of  manhood  with 
no  abatement  of  the  fervor  of  youth,  he  was  a  great 
favorite  with  the  merchants,  tradesfolk,  and  artisans, 
whose  dwellings  were  in   Coleman   Street  and  other 

*  The  bishop  meant  that  Davenport  did  not  stand  for  the  king's  pre- 
ipgative. 

28 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN,    29 

Streets  since  surrendered  entirely  to  business.  His  ad- 
mirers were  almost  universally  of  that  class  of  English- 
men whose  representatives  in  Parliament  so  much 
displeased  King  James  by  presenting  a  list  of  griev- 
ances whenever  he  asked  for  money.  Therefore  to  be 
popular,  whether  it  means  to  be  on  the  side  of  the 
people  or  to  be  regarded  by  the  people  with  favor,  was 
to  be  suspected  at  court. 

It  was  soon  found  that  something  stood  in  the  way  of 
Davenport's  induction.  The  young  preacher  had  been 
traduced  to  the  king  as  a  Puritan,  or  as  puritanically 
affected  ;  and  the  king  had  spoken  of  him  to  the  bishop 
of  London  in  such  terms  that  the  bishop  was  unwilling 
to  induct  him  into  the  benefice  to  which  he  had  been 
elected.  The  charge  of  puritanism,  if  it  meant  that 
Davenport  did  not  conform  to  all  the  prescribed  cere- 
monies of  the  Church,  had  no  foundation  at  this  early 
date.  The  accusation  had  probably  proceeded  from 
one  of  the  king's  pages,  who,  having  been  reproved  by 
Davenport  for  profane  swearing,  either  innocently  ad- 
judged him  for  that  reason  to  be  a  Puritan,  or  revenge- 
fully applied  an  opprobrious  epithet  to  prejudice  his 
reprover  in  the  king's  esteem. 

Davenport's  friends,  however,  were  not  all  "  common 
and  mean  people."  At  his  solicitation,  seconded  by 
that  of  Lady  Mary  Vere,  his  cause  was  undertaken  by 
her  brother-in-law  Sir  Richard  Conway,  principal  secre- 
tary to  his  majesty,  who  conciliated  the  king,  and  per- 
suaded the  bishop  to  proceed  to  the  induction,  which 
took  place  before  the  date  of  the  following  certificate, 
indorsed  in  the  handwriting  of  Davenport  on  a  copy  of 
"The  Thirty-Nine  Articles,"  now  in  the  library  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester :  — 


30  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

«  Novemb.  7th  1624. 

'^John  Davenporte,  Clerk,  Vicar  of  St  Stephen's  in  Coleman 
Street,  London,  did,  this  day  above  written,  being  Sunday,  pub- 
liquely  read  this  booke  of  Articles  herein  Contayned,  being  in 
number  39  besides  the  ratificacion,  and  declared  his  full  and  un- 
feigned assent  and  consent  thereunto  in  the  tyme  of  morning 
Prayer,  next  after  the  Second  Lesson,  before  the  whole  Congre- 
gacion.  As  also  the  sayd  John  did,  the  same  day,  administer  the 
Holy  Communion  in  the  sayd  parish,  in  his  surplis,  according  to 
y«  order  prescribed  by  y«  Church  of  England ;  in  the  presence  of 
these  whose  names  are  here  underwritten." 

The  certificate  is  signed  by  one  of  the  church-wardens 
and  seven  other  parishioners,  and  was  doubtless  given 
on  the  first  Sunday  after  his  induction. 

The  first  two  or  three  years  of  Davenport's  incum- 
bency were  prosperous  and  comparatively  peaceful.  So 
far  as  can  be  ascertained,  he  conformed  as  faultlessly  as 
in  his  curacy  at  St.  Lawrence's,  where,  as  he  declares 
in  a  letter  to  Secretary  Conway,  he  "  baptized  many,  but 
never  without  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  monthly  adminis- 
tered the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  at  no 
time  without  the  surplice,  nor  to  any  but  those  that 
kneeled." 

In  1627  he  brought  himself  into  trouble  by  uniting 
with  other  ministers  in  a  circular  letter  soliciting  con- 
tributions for  the  oppressed  Protestants  of  the  Upper 
Palatinate.  Laud,  who  was  now  the  principal  adviser  of 
the  king,  was  displeased  with  the  signers  of  the  letter 
for  such  sympathy  with  Presbyterians,  and  caused  them 
to  be  reprimanded  in  the  Star-Chamber. 

The  translation  of  Laud  in  1628,  to  the  see  of  Lon- 
don, brought  greater  peril  of  collision  between  him  and 
the  Calvinistic  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's.    What  was  Daven- 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    3 1 

port's  first  offence,  is  not  known ;  but  how  soon  he  was 
summoned  before  the  High  Commission,  appears  from 
the  following  extract  from  one  of  his  letters  to  Lady 
Vere :  — 

**  London,  June  30,  1628. 
''Madam,  —  Since  my  recovery  out  of  a  dangerous  sickness, 
which  held  me  for  a  week  or  a  fortnight  before  Shrovetide  to  as 
long  after  Easter,  for  which  I  return  most  humble  thanks  to  the 
God  of  my  life,  the  Father  of  mercies,  I  have  had  divers  purposes 
of  writing  to  your  honor,  only  I  delayed  in  hope  to  write  some- 
what concerning  the  event  and  success  of  our  High  Commission 
troubles ;  but  I  have  hoped  in  vain :  for  to  this  day  we  are  in  the 
same  condition  as  before,  —  delayed  till  the  finishing  of  this  session 
in  Parliament,  which  now  is  unhappily  concluded  without  any  satis* 
fying  contentment  to  the  king  or  commonwealth.  Threatenings 
were  speedily  revived  against  us  by  the  new  Bishop  of  London, 
Dr.  Laud,  even  the  next  day  after  the  conclusion  of  their  session. 
We  expect  a  fierce  storm  from  the  enraged  spirit  of  the  two  bishops. 
Ours,  as  I  am  informed,  hath  a  particular  aim  at  me  upon  a  former 
quarrel :  so  that  I  expect  ere  long  to  be  deprived  of  my  pastoral 
charge  in  Coleman  Street.  But  I  am  in  God's  hands,  not  in  theirs ; 
to  whose  good  pleasure  I  do  contentedly  and  cheerfully  commit 
myself.' " 

In  January,  163 1,  he  was  required  to  answer  certain 
charges  brought  against  him  by  Timothy  Hood,  some 
time  his  curate.  Hood  had  been  dismissed  for  not 
complying  with  the  requirement  that  he  should  reside 
within  the  parish,  and,  according  to  Davenport's  rela- 
tion of  the  case,  had  become  incensed  against  him  for 
that  reason.  One  of  the  charges  was,  that  the  vicar 
had  sometimes  administered  the  sacrament  to  commu- 
nicants who  did  not  kneel,  and  the  accusation  was 
brought  to  a  fine  edge  by  the  specification  of  Mrs.  Dav- 
enport as  one  of  the  said  communicants. 

*  Birch  MSB.,  4275. 


32  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

The  vicar  replied  to  this  objection  against  him,  that 
the  parish  contained  about  fourteen  hundred  communi- 
cants, and  that,  the  chancel  being  small,  it  was  a  matter 
of  necessity  to  administer  to  the  communicants  from 
pew  to  pew,  and  that  the  pews  were  sometimes  so  filled 
that  it  was  impossible  to  kneel ;  that  when  he  had  ob- 
served some  to  sit,  that  might  conveniently  kneel,  he 
had  advised  them  to  kneel ;  that,  in  case  of  refusal 
to  kneel,  he  had  refused  to  administer  the  sacrament  to 
the  party  so  refusing.  The  specification  concerning  his 
wife,  he  meets  by  testifying  that  she  had  received  the 
sacrament  at  his  hand,  kneeling,  many  times,  and  that 
the  curate  had  "not  acquainted  him,  the  said  John 
Davenport,  that  he  observed  any  such  thing  concerning, 
his  wife  "  as  was  charged. 

It  is  evident  from  this  disingenuous  but  doubtless 
literally  true  statement,  that  some  of  Davenport's 
parishioners,  including  his  own  wife,  were  at  this  time 
non-conformists,  and  that  he  had  winked  at  their  irregu- 
larity. It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  he  himself 
had  any  scruple  about  kneeling,  or  had  personally 
omitted  any  required  ceremony. 

The  complaint  seems  to  have  resulted  in  nothing 
worse  than  a  private  admonition  from  his  bishop.  It 
was  probably  the  conference  between  Laud  and  Daven- 
port in  reference  to  this  complaint  to  which  the  prelate 
referred,  when,  in  his  report  of  the  diocese  of  London 
for  that  part  of  the  year  1633  which  elapsed  before  his 
elevation  to  the  primacy,  he  said,  "Since  my  return 
from  Scotland,  Mr.  John  Davenport,  vicar  of  St. 
Stephen's  in  Coleman  Street  (whom  I  used  with  all 
moderation,  and  about  two  years  since  thought  I  had 


t 

EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    33 

settled  his  judgment,  having  him  then  at  advantage 
enough  to  have  put  extremity  upon  him,  but  forbore 
it),  hath  now  resigned  his  vicarage,  declared  his  judg- 
ment against  conformity  with  the  Church  of  England, 
and  is  since  gone  (as  I  hear)  to  Amsterdam."  To  his 
moderation  with  Davenport  in  Reference  to  the  com- 
plaint of  Hood,  the  prelate  again  referred  in  his  defence, 
when  on  trial  for  his  life,  before  the  Long  Parliament. 
One  charge  being,  that  he  had  forced  Davenport  to  flee 
from  his  parish  and  from  the  country,  he  said  in  reply  : 
"  The  truth  is,  my  lords,  and  'tis  well  known,  and  to 
some  of  his  best  friends,  that  I  preserved  him  once 
before,  and  my  Lord  Vere  came,  and  gave  me  thanks 
for  it." 

About  one  year  after  Davenport  had  escaped  from 
this  danger.  Laud  discovered  the  existence  of  a  com- 
pany, whose  design  was  to  purchase  such  advowsons  as, 
having  been  impropriated  to  laymen  in  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  were  now  for  sale,  in  order  that  the 
trustees,  or,  as  they  were  styled,  feoffees^  of  the  com- 
pany might  present  for  induction  men  whom  they 
regarded  as  orthodox,  that  is,  as  Calvinists.  The  com- 
pany had  been  in  operation  for  some  years,  and  had 
already  purchased  several  impropriations  with  money 
contributed  for  that  purpose.  The  discovery  of  the 
project  excited  Laud  vehemently.  He  hated  Calvinists, 
whether  conforming  or  non-conforming  ;  partly  for  their 
theology,  and  partly  for  their  almost  invariable  adhe- 
sion to  the  popular  side  in  the  contest  between  the 
Commons  and  the  king.  It  was  part  of  his  plan  of 
administration  to  exclude  them  from  preferment ;  so 
that  this  company  was,  in  his  estimation,  an  organized 


34  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

attempt  to  frustrate  his  plans.  Davenport  was  one  of 
the  feoffees  of  this  company,  and,  as  such,  participated 
in  the  heavy  displeasure  of  the  man  who  in  the  king's 
name  ruled  both  Church  and  State.  He  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  apprehensive  that  they  might  be  proceeded 
against  in  the  Star-Chamber,  and  punished  with  ruinous 
fines ;  but  Laud,  having  caused  the  corporation  to  be 
dissolved  and  its  property  to  be  confiscated,  abstained 
from  further  vengeance.  When  the  prosecution  was 
brought  to  an  end,  Davenport  recorded  in  his  Bible  his 
thanks  to  God  for  deliverance  from  the  thing  he  feared. 

The  policy  of  excluding  Calvinists  from  church  pre- 
ferment, even  if  faultless  in  their  conformity,  natu- 
rally forced  conforming  clergymen  of  that  school  of 
theology  into  closer  sympathy  with  non-conformists, 
and  into  a  wider  estrangement  from  Laud  and  his 
associates.  Doctrinal  Puritans,  as  Calvinists  were  now 
called,  finding  themselves  proscribed  by  their  ecclesi- 
astical superiors,  began  to  feel  the  force  of  the  reasons 
which  the  ceremonial  Puritans  alleged  for  not  conform- 
ing. Perhaps  the  suppression  of  the  company  of  which 
he  had  been  a  trustee,  and  the  confiscation  of  its  prop- 
erty, turned  the  scales  with  which  Davenport  weighed 
these  reasons.  However  this  may  be,  it  appears  from 
his  own  testimony  that  he  was  "  first  staggered  in  his 
conformity,  and  afterward  fully  taken  off,  by  set  con- 
ferences and  debates,  which  himself  and  sundry  other 
ministers  obtained  with  Mr.  John  Cotton,  then  driven 
from  Boston  [in  Lincolnshire]  on  account  of  his 
non-conformity. 

For  several  months  he  absented  himself  from  the 
communion-service  celebrated  monthly  in  his  church. 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    35 

but  might  perhaps  in  time  have  relapsed  into  conform- 
ity. The  tidings  which  came  on  Sunday,  Aug.  4,  1633, 
that  the  old  Calvinistic  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
George  Abbot,  was  dead,  seem  to  have  brought  him  to 
a  decision.  Abbot  had  been  decidedly  friendly  to  Cal- 
vinists  who  conformed,  and  not  very  severe  against 
those  who  were  guilty  of  some  slight  aberrations  from 
the  ritual.  His  brother,  Sir  Maurice  Abbot,  afterward 
lord  mayor,  was  a  parishioner  of  St.  Stephen's,  and  had 
sometimes  spread  over  Davenport  the  shield  of  the 
archbishop's  protection.  .  But  the  primate  was  now 
dead,  and  the  succession  of  Laud  cast  its  shadow  be- 
fore. On  Monday  Davenport  left  the  city ;  and  on 
Tuesday  Laud,  returning  from  his  missionary  tour  to 
Scotland,  was  saluted  by  the  king  as  "my  Lord  of 
Canterbury."  Davenport,  after  lying  in  concealment 
for  about  three  months,  escaped  to  Holland  "disguised 
in  a  gray  suit  and  an  overgrown  beard."  ' 

We  learn  from  one  of  his  letters  to  the  representative 
of  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  resident  at  the  Hague,  that 
when  he  went  into  that  country  he  intended  to  remain 
only  three  or  four  months  and  then  return  to  his  native 
land.  He  cannot  have  expected  that  the  storm  which 
had  driven  him  into  exile  would  so  soon  subside  entirely, 
or  even  sufficiently  to  permit  him  to  resume  his  work  as 
a  Puritan  preacher  in  England.  Some  thoughts  may 
have  been  in  his  mind  of  undertaking  in  1634  what  he 
accomplished  in  1637.  He  had  been  interested  in  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Company  as  early  certainly  as  1629, 
having  contributed  money  to  procure  the  charter  which 
the  king  signed  in  that  year,  and  had  continued  from 

'  Letter  of  Stephen  Goffe,  dated  1633,  Dec.  ^. 


36  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

that  time  to  meet  with  its  directors  and  to  act  on  its 
committees.  A  short  absence  might  be  considered  ex- 
pedient to  allow  the  vigilance  of  his  enemies  to  abate 
before  he  should  organize  an  expedition.  Nevertheless 
any  project  of  leading  a  colony  from  England  to 
America,  which  he  may  have  entertained  when  he 
landed  in  Holland,  was  so  vague  that  he  listened  to  a 
proposal  to  settle  permanently  in  Amsterdam. 

If  for  a  time  he  cherished  the  thought  of  finding  a 
home  in  Holland,  he  had  doubtless  relinquished  it  as 
early  as  1635,  for  in  that  year  his  family  returned  to 
England.  He  followed  them,  probably  in  the  summer 
or  autumn  of  1636 ;  for  the  organization  of  a  company 
of  emigrants  was  so  far  forwarded  in  January  of  the 
following  year  that  they  had  chartered  a  vessel,  "  made 
ready  all  their  provisions  and  passengers,  fitting  both 
for  the  said  voyage  and  plantation,  and  most  of  them 
thereupon  engaged  their  whole  estates."  ^ 

While  these  preparations  were  in  progress,  Daven- 
port doubtless  kept  himself  out  of  sight  as  much  as  he 
conveniently  could,  both  on  his  own  account,  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  expedition.  Years  afterward,  Laud, 
alluding  to  him  and  his  escape  to  New  England,  ex- 
claimed, "My  arm  shall  reach  him  even  there."  If  it 
had  been  known  that  those  who  had  chartered  "the 
good  ship  Hector,"  to  carry  them  to  New  England,  and 
had  engaged  their  whole  estates  in  preparing  for  the 
voyage,  were  to  have  the  former  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's 
as  their  leader,  their  undertaking  might  have  been  ex- 
tinguished with  as  little  regard  to  the  rights  of  property 

'  Petition  of  the  Owners  and  Freighters  of  the  Good  Ship  called  the 
Hector  of  London.    State  Papers :  ColoniaL 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    37 

as  that  of  Xht  feoffees  had  been.  It  did,  indeed,  become 
known  at  last  that  Davenport  had  returned.  The  vicar- 
general  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  reporting  his  visita- 
tion of  the  diocese,  writes  from  Braintree,  March  6, 
"  Mr.  Davenport  hath  lately  been  in  these  parts,  and  at 
Hackney,  not  long  since.  I  am  told  that  he  goeth  in 
gray,  like  a  country  gentleman."  We  may  infer  from 
what  this  reporter  relates,  that  Davenport  had  not 
shown  himself  much  in  public,  and,  from  his  silence  in 
reference  to  the  expedition  to  New  England,  that  he 
had  heard  nothing  of  Davenport's  connection  with  it. 

About  twelve  months  before  Davenport  fled  from 
London,  Samuel  Eaton  and  John  Lathrop,^  two  non- 
conforming clergymen,  were  imprisoned  by  the  High 
Commission  for  holding  conventicles.  With  the  con- 
nivance of  the  jailer,  Eaton  continued  to  hold  conventi- 
cles after  his  incarceration,  as  appears  from  a  document 
preserved  among  the  English  State  Papers,  and  here 
subjoined :  — 

"  To  the  most  Reverend  Father  in  God,  William,  Lord  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  his  grace,  Primate  and  Metropolitan  of  all  Eng- 
land:— 

"Humbly  sheweth:  —  The  most  humble  petition  of  Francis 
Tucker,  Bachelor  of  Divinity,  and  prisoner  in  Newgate  for  debt. 
That  whereas  there  is  one  Samuel  Eaton,  prisoner  in  Newgate, 
committed  by  your  grace  for  a  schismatical  and  dangerous  fellow; 
that  the  said  Eaton  hath  held  divers  conventicles  within  the  said 
gaol,  some  whereof  hath  been  to  the  number  of  seventy  persons 
or  more,  and  that  he  was  permitted  by  the  said  keeper  openly  and 
publicly  to  preach  unto  them ;  and  that  the  said  Eaton  hath  often- 

*  Lathrop  had  formerly  been  vicar  of  Egerton  in  Kent,  but  now  was 
the  teacher  of  a  congregation  of  Separatists  in  London.  Egerton  had 
become  a  stronghold  of  Puritanism. 


38         •      HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

times  affirmed  in  his  said  sermons  that  baptism  was  the  doctrine  of 
devils,  and  its  original  was  an  institution  from  the  devil ;  and  often- 
times he  would  rail  against  your  grace,  affirming  that  all  bishops 
were  heretics,  blasphemers,  and  antichristian.  That  the  said 
keeper,  having  notice  hereof  by  the  petitioner,  who  desired  him 
to  be  a  means  that  these  great  resorts  and  conventicles  might  be 
prevented,  and  that  he  would  reprove  the  said  Eaton  for  the  same, 
and  remove  him  to  some  other  place  of  the  prison.  That  hereupon 
the  said  keeper,  in  a  disdainful  manner,  replied  that  the  petitioner 
should  meddle  with  what  he  had  to  do ;  and  if  he  did  dislike  the 
said  Eaton  and  his  conventicles,  he  would  remove  the  petitioner 
into  some  worse  place  of  the  prison.  That  at  this  time  there  was  a 
conventicle  of  sixty  persons  or  more ;  that  the  said  keeper  coming 
into  the  room  where  the  conventicle  was,  and  the  said  Eaton 
preaching  unto  them  and  maintaining  dangerous  opinions,  having 
viewed  the  said  assembly,  he  said  there  was  a  very  fair  and  goodly 
company;  and  staying  there  some  season,  departed  without  any 
distaste  thereat,  to  the  great  encouragement  of  the  said  Eaton  and 
the  said  persons  to  frequent  the  said  place.  That  the  said  keeper 
had  a  strict  charge  from  the  said  commission  to  have  a  special  care 
of  the  said  Eaton;  and  that  since,  the  said  keeper  hath  several 
times  permitted  him  to  go  abroad  to  preach  to  conventicles  ap- 
pointed by  him,  the  said  Eaton.  That  daily  there  doth  resort  to 
the  said  Eaton  much  people  to  hear  him  preach.  That  the  said 
petitioner  reproving  the  said  keeper  for  the  said  contempt,  he 
thereupon  abused  him  with  uncivil  language,  and  further;  caused 
the  said  Eaton  to  abuse  the  petitioner,  not  only  with  most  abusive 
words,  but  also  with  blows. " 

Eaton  and  Lathrop  were  probably  released  on  bail, 
for  the  court  after  calling  them  several  times  finally 
decreed,  Feb.  19,  1635,  ^^^it  for  their  contempt  in  not 
appearing  to  answer  charges  touching  their  holding 
conventicles,  their  bonds  should  be  certified,  and  they 
attached  and  committed.  Lathrop,  fortunately  for  him, 
was  already  in  New  England,  having  arrived  at  Boston 
with   thirty-two   of  his   congregation   Sept.    18,    1634. 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    39 

Eaton,  having  lain  in  concealment  till  the  return  of 
Davenport  from-  Holland,  became  his  associate  in  the 
voyage  to  America.  Perhaps  he  was  drawn  into  such 
association  by  personal  friendship,  as  well  as  by  the 
peril  to  which  they  were  exposed  in  common  ;  for  both 
were  natives  of  Coventry,  where  Eaton's  father,  a  bene- 
ficed clergyman,  had  been  the  religious  teacher  and 
guide  of  Davenport's  childhood  and  youth. 

Theophilus  Eaton,  an  older  brother  of  Samuel  Eaton, 
was  so  nearly  of  the  age  of  Davenport  that  they  had 
been  schoolmates  and  intimate  friends  in  Coventry. 
Intended  by  his  parents  for  the  church,  he  had  become  a 
merchant  in  London.  Respected  for  his  character  and 
for  his  success  in  business,  he  was  elected  at  an  early 
age  Deputy  Governor  of  the  Fellowship  of  Eastland 
Merchants,  and  sent  by  them,  as  their  agent,  to  super- 
intend their  affairs  and  promote  their  interests  in  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  Baltic.  Returning  after  an 
absence  of  three  years,  he  became  a  parishioner  of  his 
friend,  the  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's.  Already  so  much  a 
Puritan  that  he  had  scrupled  when  abroad  at  the  lawful- 
ness of  drinking  toasts,  he  was  probably,  when  Daven- 
port resigned  his  vicarage,  as  far  advanced  as  he  in  non- 
conformity. The  idea  of  expatriation  had,  perhaps, 
become  less  repulsive  to  his  mind  by  reason  of  his  long 
connection  with  the  company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  of 
which  he  was  one  of  the  original  patentees,  and  to  which 
he,  like  Davenport,  had  liberally  given  time  and  money. 
The  acquaintance  he  had  made  with  the  court  of  High 
Commission  through  the  recent  experience  of  his  brother 
Samuel,  and  perhaps  through  personal  experience  as  his 
brother's  bondsman,  would  naturally  incline  him  to  put 


40  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

himself  and  his  children  beyond  its  jurisdiction.  He 
not  only  joined  the  expedition,  but  acted  so  important  a 
part  in  its  history,  that  he  and  Davenport  have  been 
styled  its  Moses  and  Aaron. 

Theophilus  Elaton  was  living  at  this  time  with  his 
second  wife,  whose  daughter  by  a  former  husband  was 
married  to  Edward  Hopkins,  a  Puritan  merchant  of 
London.  Hopkins  much  esteemed  his  wife's  step- 
father, and  resolved  to  accompany  him  to  America. 
Two  young  men,  David  Yale  and  Thomas  Yale,  sons  of 
Mrs.  Eaton,  were  also  of  the  company. 

John  Evance,  a  London  merchant  and  a  parishioner 
of  St.  Stephen's,  was  present  at  the  general  vestr}'^  when 
Davenport  was  elected  vicar  in  October,  1624.  He  had 
been  married  in  May  of  the  same  year  to  Anne  Young. 
It  has  been  assumed  by  some  writers  that  many  of  the 
New  Haven  planters  had  been  parishioners  of  Daven- 
port in  London.  He  was  so  popular  and  prominent  a 
preacher,  that  probably  all  of  the  company  who  had 
lived  in  London  had  heard  him  preach ;  but  of  the 
seventy-three  persons  present  at  the  general  vestry  in 
October,  1624,  only  one  is  known  to  have  come  with 
Davenport  to  New  Haven.  Theophilus  Eaton  may  have 
been  a  parishioner  thus  early  ;  but,  even  if  so,  was  prob- 
ably absent  at  that  time  in  the  East  countries.  Other 
New  Haven  names  than  those  of  Evance  and  Eaton 
are  found  on  the  parish  register  of  St.  Stephen's ;  but 
the  names  are  such  as  might  be  found  elsewhere  in 
England,  and  most  of  the  persons  who  brought  them 
to  America  are  known  to  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  at 
an  earlier  or  a  later  date  than  Eaton,  Evance,  and 
Davenport. 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    4 1 

Besides  these  who  were  related  to  Davenport,  as  his 
former  parishioners,  or  to  Theophilus  Eaton  by  family 
ties,  several  citizens  of  London  joined  the  company. 
Not  all  of  them  can  now  be  distinguished  from  those 
who  came  from  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  but  there  is 
more  or  less  authority  for  including  in  such  a  list  the 
names  of  Stephen  Goodyear,  Richard  Malbon,  Thomas 
Gregson,  William  Peck,  Robert  Newman,  Francis  New- 
man, and  Ezekiel  Cheever. 

The  London  men  with  their  families  forming  the 
nucleus  of  the  company,  other  families  or  companies 
from  the  rural  counties  became  united  with  it.  One 
group  of  families  came  from  Kent,  or,  in  other  words, 
from  the  diocese  of  Canterbury,  which,  three  years 
before,  by  the  death  of  Archbishop  Abbot,  had  fallen 
under  the  immediate  administration  of  Laud.  Abbot 
was,  like  the  Puritans,  a  Calvinist  in  his  theology ;  like 
them  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the  reformed  churches 
of  the  Continent,  continuing  to  tolerate  the  French 
refugees,  who  from  the  time  of  Elizabeth  had  main- 
tained worship  according  to  the  forms  of  their  own 
church  within  his  diocese  and  even  in  the  basement 
of  his  cathedral ;  like  them  he  believed  in  the  sanctifi- 
cation  of  the  Lord's  day,  preventing  the  reading,  in  the 
parish  church  of  Croydon  where  he  was  residing  at 
the  time,  of  King  James's  proclamation  which  allowed 
and  encouraged  athletic  games  on  the  afternoon  of  Sun- 
day. It  was  natural  that  a  man  so  much  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  Puritans  should  deal  leniently  with  them 
in  regard  to  their  deviations  from  ritual  regularity. 
He  was  loath  to  deprive  the  Church  of  its  most  instruc- 


42  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

tive  and  influential  preachers,  and  hoped  by  mild  treat- 
ment to  bring  them  back  to  conformity. 

Upon  the  accession  of  Laud,  there  was  an  immediate 
and  radical  change  in  the  administration  of  the  diocese. 
In  the  reports  which  he  rendered  annually  to  the 
king,  the  primate  complains,  both  in  1634  and  1635,  of 
a  part  of  Kent  around  Ashford,  as  specially  infected 
with  distemper  against  the  Church.  In  his  account  for 
1636,  he  said, — 

"  I  have  every  year  acquainted  your  majesty,  and  so  must  do 
now,  that  there  are  still  about  Ashford  and  Egerton  divers  Brown- 
ists  and  other  Separatists.  But  they  are  so  very  mean  and  poor 
people,  that  we  know  not  what  to  do  with  them.  They  are  said  to 
be  the  disciples  of  one  Turner  and  Fenner,  who  were  long  since 
apprehended  by  order  of  your  Majesty's  High  Commission  Court. 
But  how  this  part  came  to  be  so  infected  with  such  a  humor  of 
separation,  I  know  not,  unless  it  were  by  too  much  connivance  at 
their  first  beginning.  Neither  do  I  see  any  remedy  like  to  be, 
unless  some  of  their  chief  seducers  be  driven  to  abjure  the  king- 
dom ;  which  must  be  done  by  the  judges  at  the  common  law,  but  is 
not  in  our  power." 

On  the  margin  of  the  paper  containing  this  account 
the  king  wrote,  "  Inform  me  of  the  particulars,  and  I 
shall  command  the  judges  to  make  them  abjure." 
Among  the  English  State  Papers  is  a  "  Book  of  Rough 
Notes  "  by  the  king's  secretary,  containing  these  and 
other  memoranda :  — 

"  163^  Jan.  6. — Proceedings  of  the  Council  at  their  several  meet- 
ings during,  this  month  beginning  this  day. 

**  Jan.  21.  —  A  catalogue  of  books  written  by  anabaptists. 

*^  That  the  statute  of  abjuration  may  be  put  in  execution  against 
some  principal  men.  That  the  judges  be  spoken  with  against 
Fenner  and  Turner. 


EMIGRATION  OF  PLANTERS  OF  NEW  HAVEN    43 

"  Speak  with  Lord  Keeper  and  Mr.  Attorney  to  draw  a  procla- 
mation for  altering  the  style  or  date  of  the  year  to  begin  in  Januar>'. 

"Jan.  25.  —  To  mind  the  Lords  and  Lord  Keeper  to  speak  with 
the  judges  and  Mr.  Attorney  about  altering  the  date  of  year  [of] 
our  Lord ;  that  it  may  begin  the  first  of  January  as  in  other  king- 
doms. 

"  And  about  putting  the  statute  of  abjuration ;  to  be  put  in  exe- 
cution against  Fenner  and  Turner. 

"  Mr.  Attorney  is  to  speak  with  tlie  judges  about  the  date  [of] 
beginning  the  new  year." 

From  these  documents  it  is  evident  that  the  attention 
of  Laud  was  turned  in  1636,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
following  year,  to  the  Separatists  about  Ashford  and 
Egerton  in  Kent,  and  that  he  attempted  to  have  the 
statute  of  abjuration  put  in  execution  against  them. 
Such  a  movement  of  one  so  powerful  and  so  relentless 
accounts  for  the  emigration  of  the  Kentish  men,  who, 
according  to  tradition,  came  with  Davenport,  or  two 
years  later  with  Whitfield,  bringing  so  many  family 
names  identical  with  the  names  inscribed  in  the  church- 
yards of  Kent.' 

Another  company  came  from  Hereford,  a  shire  in  the 
West  of  England,  bordering  on  Wales,  The  particular 
events  which  moved  them  to  leave  their  homes  at  that 
time  are  yet  to  seek ;  but  it  is  known  that  they  left 

'  The  writer  may  be  excused  for  specifying  two  brothers  of  his  own 
name,  whose  ancestral  home,  though  in  another  parish,  was  less  than  two 
miles  from  Egerton  Church  and  in  full  view  of  its  massive  tower.  Joshua 
Atwater,  the  elder  of  the  two,  had  established  himself  as  "  a  mercer  "  at 
Ashford.  David  Atwater,  from  whom  all  in  America  who  hear  that  family 
name  are  descended,  had  not  completed  his  twenty-second  year  when  he 
landed  in  America.  They  had  buried  their  father  in  November,  1636,  and 
their  mother  in  the  following  January;  and,  being  thus  liberated  fiom 
filial  duties,  joined  the  expedition  with  their  sister,  the  only  surviving 
member  of  the  family  besides  themselves. 


44  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

under  the  influence  and  guidance  of  Peter  Prudden,  a 
clergj^man  of  Hereford,  well  known  to  all  of  them  by 
reputation,  if  not  by  personal  knowledge  of  him  as  a 
preacher  and  pastor.  Probably  they  learned  through 
him  of  the  expedition  originated  by  Davenport  and  his 
friends,  and  became,  through  his  agency,  members  of 
the  association  which,  leaving  London  in  April,  1637, 
founded  New  Haven  in  April,  1638.  The  fact  that 
after  they  had  belonged  to  the  association  more  than 
two  years,  after  they  *had  resided  some  months  in  the 
new  plantation,  after  some  of  them  had  built  for  them- 
selves houses,  and  had  left  behind  them  the  hardest  of 
the  hardships  incident  to  such  an  enterprise,  they  sepa- 
rated themselves  from  their  associates,  removed  to  Mil- 
ford,  and  settled  in  a  town  by  themselves,  with  Prudden 
for  their  minister,  evinces  the  strength  and  permanence 
of  their  attachment  to  the  man  whom  they  followed  in 
leaving  their  homes  in  England.  The  Herefordshire 
people,  for  reasons  which  will  appear  hereafter,  can  be 
with  more  certainty  distinguished  from  their  fellow- 
passengers,  and  grouped  together,  than  those  from 
Kent  or  those  from  London. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR. 

IT  was  a  great  undertaking  for  the  company  which 
gradually  gathered  around  Davenport  and  the  Eatons, 
to  prepare  for  a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  and  a  per- 
manent residence  in  the  New  World.  The  ministers 
could  perhaps  embark,  with  their  books  and  household- 
stuflf,  in  a  few  days ;  but  merchants  engaged  in  foreign 
commerce  needed  several  months,  after  deciding  to  emi- 
grate, for  the  conversion  of  their  capital  into  money,  or 
into  merchandise  suitable  for  the  adventure  in  which 
they  were  engaging. 

But  this  company  projected  something  more  than 
emigration.  They  were  not  to  scatter  themselves, 
when  they  disembarked,  among  the  different  settle- 
ments already  established  in  New  England,  but  to 
remain  together,  and  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  and 
isolated  community.  For  this  reason  a  more  compre- 
hensive outfit  was  necessary  than  if  they  had  expected 
to  become  incorporated,  individually  or  collectively,  in 
communities  already  planted.  In  addition  to  the  stores 
shipped  by  individuals,  there  must  be  many  things 
provided  for  the  common  good,  by  persons  acting  in 
behalf  of  the  whole  company.  There  is  evidence,  that, 
after  the  expedition  arrived  at  New  Haven,  its  affairs 

45 


46  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

were  managed  like  those  of  a  joint-stock  association, 
and  therefore  some  ground  for  believing,  that,  from  the 
beginning,  those  who  agreed  to  emigrate  in  this  com- 
pany, or  at  least  some  of  them,  associated  themselves 
together  as  partners  in  the  profit  and  loss  of  the  adven- 
ture. 

Higginson,  some  years  before,  had  advised  emigrants 
that  "  it  were  a  wise  course  for  those  that  are  of  abilities 
to  join  together  and  buy  a  ship  for  the  voyage  ; "  alleging 
as  a  reason,  that  transportation  was  so  dear  as  five 
pounds  a  man,  and  ten  pounds  a  horse,  and  commonly 
three  pounds  for  every  ton  of  goods.  "  All  that  come," 
he  says,  "must  have  victuals  with  them  for  a  twelve- 
month." Still  earlier,  Winslow  had  written  from 
Plymouth,  "Bring  good  store  of  clothes  and  bedding 
with  you.  Bring  paper  and  linseed-oil  for  your  windows, 
with  cotton-yam  for  your  lamps." 

These  directions,  intended  in  both  cases  for  emigrants 
coming  to  join  communities  already  established,  illus- 
trate the  need  of  studious  foresight  and  careful  co- 
operation in  a  company  of  persons  proposing  not  only 
to  remove  to  New  England,  but  to  begin  a  new  and 
independent  plantation. 

Davenport  and  Eaton  had  learned  by  experience,  in 
fitting  out  vessels  for  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company, 
what  would  be  needed  in  a  new  settlement,  and  were 
as  well  qualified,  perhaps,  as  any  could  be,  to  prepare  a 
.list  of  necessary  articles.  The  Abigail,  the  first  ship 
which  came  to  Salem,  brought  ten  thousand  bricks  as 
ballast ;  and  bricks  'with  "  London  "  stamped  on  them 
were  found  at  the  demolition  of  a  very  ancient  house  in 


THE    VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR.  47 

New  Haven."  It  is  not  certain  that  the  vessel  in  which 
Davenport  and  Eaton  embarked,  was,  like  the  Abigail, 
ballasted  with  bricks ;  but  the  fact  that  bricks  were 
sometimes  brought  from  England  illustrates  the  care 
with  which  emigrant-ships  were  fitted  out.  The  Abi- 
gail brought  also  sea-coals,  but  all  freighters  must  have 
soon  learned  that  it  was  useless  to  carry  fuel  to  a  coun- 
try so  well  timbered  as  New  England.  An  emigrant- 
ship  was  further  ballasted  with  iron,  steel,  lead,  nails,  and 
other  heavy  articles  of  utility.  The  bulk  of  the  cargo 
consisted  of  apparel,  bedding,  food,  tools,  arms,  ammu- 
nition, and  seeds.  Neat-cattle  and  goats  were  usually 
taken,  and  sometimes  horses.  The  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company  had  a  rule,  that  a  ship  of  two  hundred  tons 
should  not  carry  above  one  hundred  passengers,  and 
other  ships  were  limited  after  the  same  proportion. 

In  the  summer  of  1636,  several  vessels  recently  ar- 
rived from  England  being  in  the  harbor  of  Boston, 
Thomas  Miller,  the  master's  mate  of  one  of  them,  was 
apprehended  and  brought  before  the  Governor  and 
Council,  for  saying,  to  some  who  came  on  board,  that 
the  colonists  were  traitors  and  rebels  because  they  did 
not  display  the  king's  colors  at  the  fort.  The  ship  on 
which  this  insufferable  speech  was  spoken  was  the 
Hector  of  London,  William  Femes,  master.  Sailing 
from  Boston  in  July,  she  was  chartered  after  her  arrival 

*  The  writer  remembers  to  have  seen  some  of  these  bricks  taken  from 
the  Atwater  house  of  which  Dr.  Dana  in  his  Century  Sermon  speaks  as 
built  by  Joshua  Atwater,  one  of  the  emigrants.  I  think,  however,  that  the 
house  was  built  by  a  nephew  of  Joshua  Atwater.  Certainly  ThomasAtt- 
water  (as  be  chose  to  write  his  name),  who  in  Dr.  Dana's  time  occupied 
the  house,  was  not  descended  from  Joshua  Atwater,  but  from  his  brother 
DaTid. 


48  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

in  London  by  the  company  whose  origin  has  been  re- 
lated in  the  preceding  chapter.  While  they  were  pre- 
paring her  for  another  voyage  to  Boston,  she  was  seized 
by  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  for  the  king's  service,  as 
will  appear  from  the  following  petition  without  date,  but 
indorsed,  "  Received  January,  1637 : "  — 

"  To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  and  other  Commissioners  of 
his  Majesty's  High  Court  of  Admiralty  :  — 

"The  humble  petition  of  the  Owners  and  Freighters  of  the 
good  ship  called  the  Hector  of  London, 

"  Humbly  showeth  unto  your  honors  that  your  petitioners  having 
contracted  for  a  voyage  with  the  said  ship  from  here  to  New  Eng- 
land for  a  plantation  there,  and  from  there  to  divers  parts-  in  the 
Streights,  the  freighters  have  made  ready  all  their  provisions  and 
passengers,  fitting  both  for  the  said  voyage  and  plantation,  and 
most  of  them  thereupon  engaged  their  whole  estates  and  paid  part 
of  their  moneys.  Since  which  agreement  and  preparation  made, 
the  said  ship  is  impressed  for  his  Majesty's  service  whereby  she  is 
hindered  from  proceeding  on  the  said  intended  voyage. 

"  Their  most  humble  suit  therefore  is  that  in  respect  of  the  peti- 
tioners* great  charges  already  arisen  before  the  impressing  of  the 
ship,  and  her  not  proceeding  on  her  voyage  will  tend  to  the  great 
loss,  if  not  utter  undoing  of  divers  of  your  honors'  suppliants,  and 
for  that,  if  it  pleased  God  the  ship  do  safely  retume,  the  Custom 
to  his  Majesty  of  the  goods  to  be  imported  in  her  from  the  Streights 
hither  will  amount  to  jfsooo  at  the  least,  your  Lordships  would  be 
pleased  to  give  order  and  warrant  for  the  release  of  the  said  ship 
from  her  impression  that  so  she  may  proceed  on  her  said  voyage, 

"  And  they  as  in  duty  bound  shall  daily  pray." 

This  petition  was  supported  by  the  following  certifi- 
cate, signed  by  Samuel  Hutchinson,  Richard  Hutchin- 
son, and  Arthur  Hollingworth,  who  were  perhaps  the 
owners  of  the  Hector: — 

"  We  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed  do  hereby  certify 
that  the  good  ship  called  the  Hector  of  London  was  contracted  for, 


THE   VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR,  49 

for  a  voyage,  and  that  provision  was  made  and  provided  before  the 
said  ship  was  impressed  for  the  king's  Majesty's  service.  In  testi- 
mony whereof  we  have  hereunder  set  our  names  the  nineteenth  of 
January  A.  D.  1637." 

On  the  23d  of  the  same  month  the  Secretary  of  the 
Admiralty  wrote  to  Sir  William  Russell,  through  whom 
the  petition,  with  others  of  like  import,  had  reached 
them,  as  follows :  — 

"  Sir,  —  The  Lords  Commissioners  for  the  Admiralty  (having 
perused  your  letter  of  the  21st  of  this  month  touching  the  mer- 
chant ships  ordered  to  be  taken  up  for  his  Majesty's  service)  have 
commanded  me  to  signify  to  you  that  they  think  it  not  fit  to  release 
any  of  the  said  ships  upon  the  pretences  expressed  in  your  letter 
(albeit  the  same  may  be  true)  in  regard  they  perceive  by  your  letter 
that  there  are  not  at  present  any  merchant  ships  in  the  Thames  fit 
to  send  in  their  places.  But  when  you  shall  certify  their  Lordships 
that  there  are  other  merchant  ships  in  the  river  of  the  like  burden 
and  force,  fit  for  his  Majesty's  service  that  may  be  completely  fitted 
and  ready  by  the  20th  of  April  next,  their  Lordships  will  consider 
further  of  the  allegations  of  the  owners  of  the  four  ships  men- 
tioned in  your  said  letter  and  declare  their  further  pleasure  there- 
upon." 

Not  entirely  discouraged  by  this  reply,  the  captain  of 
the  Hector  presented  another  petition  without  date,  but 
indorsed,  "1637,  February  14:"  — 

"  To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  and  other  Commissioners  of 
the  Admiralty.:  — 

"The  humble  petition  of  William  Femes,  master  of  the  ship 
called  the  Hector, 

"Humbly  showeth  that  whereas  the  petitioner  hath  been  an 
humble  suitor  to  your  honors  for  the  releasing  of  the  said  ship ; 
for  that  there  was  a  contract  and  provision  was  made  for  a  voyage 
long  before,  which  tends  to  the  ruin  of  many,  except  your  honors 
be  pleased  to  give  order  for  her  discharge;  for  that  there  are 


so  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

divers  ships  come  in  more  fit  and  able  for  his  Majesty's  service^ 
viz.,  the  Vinty  about  300  tons  and  22  pieces  of  ordnance;  the 
Royal  Defence  300  tons  and  upwards,  with  22  pieces  of  ordnance ; 
the  Pleiades  350  tons,  26  ordnance ;  Prudence  370  tons,  28  pieces 
ordnance ;  one  whereof  Mr.  Wise  is  master,  350  tons  and  2.^  pieces 
of  ordnance ; 

"  His  humble  suit  therefore  is  that  your  honors  will  please  to  give 
order  that  the  said  ship  called  the  Hector  may  be  discharged  for 
the  reasons  aforesaid,  that  she  may  go  on  in  her  intended  voyage, 

"  And  the  petitioner  with  many  others  shall  pray." 

Ultimately,  the  Hector  was  released ;  and  from  an 
order  of  the  king  in  council,  that  the  Pleiades,  with 
other  impressed  vessels,  should  be  ready  for  sea  on  the 
25th  of  April,  it  may  be  inferred  that  she  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  Hector.  The  reader  will  have  noticed 
that  the  names  of  the  freighters  are  withheld  in  all  these 
negotiations  for  the  release  of  their  ship.  It  is  alleged 
that  many  will  suffer,  and  perhaps  be  undone,  but  there 
is  nothing  to  call  attention  to  any  individuals  as  engaged 
in  the  enterprise. 

The  lords  of  the  council  were  not  ignorant  that  con- 
siderable emigration  to  New  England  Had  already  taken 
place,  or  that  the  exodus  still  continued ;  but  they  be- 
lieved that  those  who  went  were  for  the  most  part  poor 
and  mean  people,  who  would  be  of  little  advantage  at 
home  and  might,  if  colonized,  be  of  use  by  increasing 
foreign  commerce.  Moreover  they  were  unaware  how 
strongly  this  emigration  was  leavened  with  Puritanism. 
If  they  had  known  that  several  wealthy  merchants  of 
London,  inclined  to  non-conformity,  had  embarked  their 
whole  estates  in  the  Hector,  and  were  intending  to 
go  to  New  England  with  their  families  to  find  there  a 
permanent  residence,  they  would  have  found  means  to 


THE   VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR.  51 

frustrate  the  undertaking.  On  the  30th  of  April  proc- 
lamation was  made,  "that  the  king  —  being  informed 
that  great  numbers  of  his  subjects  are  yearly  trans- 
ported into  those  parts  of  America  which  have  been 
granted  by  patent  to  several  persons,  and  there  settle 
themselves,  some  of  them  with  their  families  and  whole 
estates,  amongst  whom  are  many  idle  and  refractory 
humors,  whose  only  or  principal  end  is  to  live  without 
the  reach  of  authority  —  doth  command  his  officers  and 
ministers  of  the  ports,  not  to  sufEer  any  persons,  being 
subsidy  men  or  of  their  value,  to  pass  to  any  of  those 
plantations  without  a  license  from  his  Majesty's  com- 
missioners for  plantations  first  obtained  ;  nor  any  under 
the  degree  of  subsidy  men,  without  a  certificate  from 
two  justices  of  .the  peace  where  they  lived,  that  they 
have  taken  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and 
a  testimony  from  the  minister  of  the  parish,  of  their 
conformity  to  the  orders  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of 
England."  As  the  Hector  arrived  in  Boston  on  the 
26th  of  June,  we  may  infer  from  the  date  of  this  proclama- 
tion that  it  was  issued  immediately  after  she  had  sailed, 
and  that  it  was  occasioned  by  the  discovery  of  the  true 
nature  of  an  expedition  in  which  several  persons,  being 
subsidy  men,  or  of  their  value,  had  clandestinely  left  the 
kingdom  and  carried  away  their  estates. 

If  the  ship  was  chartered  by  a  joint-stock  association, 
it  does  not  follow  that  only  shareholders  took  passage 
in  her.  The  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  had  a  regu- 
lar tariff  of  rates  at  which  they  received  all  freight  that 
was  offered,  and  all  passengers  who  were  approved. 
Theophilus  Eaton  owned  a  sixteenth  of  the  Arbclla, 
which  had  been  purchased  expressly  for  that  company's 


52  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

service ;  and  both  he  and  Davenport,  as  directors  of  the 
company,  had  become  familiar  with  its  methods.  The 
rates  of  that  company  were  five  pounds  for  the  passage 
of  an  adult,  and  four  pounds  for  a  ton  of  goods.  The 
association  of  adventurers  which  chartered  the  Hec- 
tor would  naturally  adopt  similar  methods  and  similar 
rates.  Having  secured  accommodation  for  themselves 
and  their  families,  and  for  the  freight  which  belonged  to 
the  association  and  to  the  individuals  composing  it,  they 
would  receive  persons  not  shareholders,  at  the  regular 
rates.  Some  of  the  emigrants  may  have  been  precluded 
from  taking  stock  in  the  association  by  the  expenses  of 
emigration ;  but  the  originators  of  the  enterprise  would  • 
naturally  desire  that  all  who  were  of  sufficient  ability 
should  have  a  pecuniary  interest  in  its  welfare.  There 
was  at  least  one  passenger  who  did  not  come  as  an  emi- 
grant. Winthrop  writes  in  his  journal,  "  In  the  Hec- 
tor came  also  the  Lord  Leigh,  son  and  heir  of  the  Earl 
of  Marlborough,  being  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  who 
came  only  to  see  the  country.  He  was  of  very  sober 
carriage,  especially  in  the  ship,  where  he  was  much  dis- 
respected and  unworthily  used  by  the  master,  one  Femes, 
and  some  of  the  passengers ;  yet  he  bore  it  meekly  and 
silently." » 

Before  the  Hector  sailed,  the  company  which  char- 
tered her  had  so  increased  that  it  became  necessary  to 
hire  another  vessel  to  accompany  her  on  the  voyage ; 
but  the  name  of  the  vessel  has  not  been  preserved  to 
us.     This  unexpected  increase  was  due  to  the  accession 

'  Winthrop  perhaps  changed  his  mind  about  Lord  Leigh,  when  that 
youth,  having  accepted  the  governor's  invitation  to  a  dinner-party  made 
expressly  to  honor  him,  was  persuaded  by  Harry  Vane  to  absent  himself. 


THE   VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR.  53 

of  those  who  have  been  mentioned  as  coming  from 
Kent  and  from  Herefordshire.  Concerning  the  latter, 
we  have  no  means  of  determining  when  Prudden  began 
to  negotiate  with  Davenport ;  but  the  men  of  Kent 
appear  to  have  joined  the  expedition  after  the  Hector 
was  engaged  for  the  voyage.  Their  departure  was  so 
hasty  that  many  who  wished  to  go  were  forced  to  wait 
for  another  opportunity,  and  came  out  two  years  after- 
ward in  the  first  ship  which  sailed  from  England  direct 
to  the  harbor  of  New  Haven. 

No  documents  have  yet  been  found  which  indicate 
the  day  when  the  Hector  and  her  consort  sailed  from 
London,'  or  the  manner  in  which  the  officers  of  the 
port  discharged  their  oflScial  duty  in  examining  the  cer- 
tificates of  the  passengers.  Similar  requirements  to 
those  prescribed  by  the  proclamation  of  April  30  had 
been  made  by  a  proclamation  issued  more  than  two 
years  earlier,  but  were  nevertheless  insufficient  to  pre- 
vent the  emigration  of  Puritans.  Many  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  a  bona-fide  certificate  of  conformity, 
and  it  docs  not  appear  that  any  objected  to  the  oaths 
of  allegiance  and  supremacy.  If  unable  to  obtain  a 
certificate  from  the  minister  of  the  parish  where  they 
had  lived,  they  came,  some  clandestinely,  and  some 
under  borrowed  names  and  corresponding  passports. 
It  is  said  that  John  Aylmer,  Bishop  of  London  in  Queen 
Elizabeth's   time,  and   an  exile  for  religion  in  Queen 

*  Sir  Matthew  Boynton,  who  had  previously  sent  out  some  cattle,  and 
some  servants  to  care  for  them,  in  a  letter  dated  "  London,  April  12, 1637," 
writes  to  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  "  I  have  sent  either  of  my  servants  half  a 
year's  wages  by  Mr.  Hopkins,  which,  I  pray  you,  deliver  to  them."  Proba- 
bly this  letter  came  in  the  Hector  with  Mr.  Hopkins.  If  so,  she  sailed 
sifter  the  12th  of  ApriL 


54  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Mary's  reign,  was  so  small  of  stature,  that,  when  the 
searchers  were  clearing  the  ship  in  which  he  made  his 
escape,  the  merchant  put  him  into  a  great  wine-butt 
that  had  a  partition  in  the  middle,  so  that  Aylmer  was 
enclosed  in  the  hinder  part  while  the  searchers  drank  of 
the  wine  which  they  saw  drawn  out  of  the  head  on  the 
other  part.'  The  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century 
were  capable  of  exercising  equal  ingenuity  when  neces- 
sarj' ;  but,  in  a  ship  full  of  his  friends,  a  person  obnox- 
ious to  the  government  might  be  secreted  for  an  hour 
without  so  much  trouble,  even  if  the  searching  officer 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  lords  of  the  Privy  Council. 
In  many  cases,  however,  the  searcher  discharged  his 
duty  perfunctorily,  and  with  no  earnest  desire  to  dis- 
cover and  arrest  those  who  embarked  without  the  re- 
quired certificates.  If  ever  lists  of  the  passengers  in 
the  Hector  and  her  consort  should  be  discovered,  they 
will  probably  not  contain  the  name  of  John  Davenport 
or  of  Samuel  Eaton. 

Two  months  was  perhaps  the  average  time  consumed 
in  sailing  from  London  to  Boston  in  the  vessels  of  that 
day.  The  Arbella,  when  she  brought  Winthrop  and  his 
company,  was  a  little  more  than  two  months  from 
Yarmouth  to  Salem ;  and  there  is  no  intimation  in  his 
journal  that  the  voyage  was  unexpectedly  long.  Hig- 
ginson  says,  "  Our  passage  was  short  and  speedy ;  for 
whereas  we  had  three  thousand  miles  English  to  sail 
from  Old  to  New  England,  we  performed  the  same  in 
six  weeks  and  three  days."  A  passage  was  indeed  some- 
times made  in  less  time,  but  in  other  instances  was  pro- 
tracted to  three  months.     A  vessel  made  but  one  round 

*  Fuller's  Worthies,  B.  II.,  248. 


THE   VOYAGE   OF   THE  HECTOR.  $5 

trip  in  a  year,  leaving  England  in  the  spring  and  arriv- 
ing home  in  the  autumn.  Crowded  cabins  rendered  the 
passage  uncomfortable,  even  when  speedy ;  but  a  pro- 
tracted voyage  often  induced  not  only  discomfort,  but 
disease. 

None  of  the  passengers  in  the  Hector,  or  in  the  vessel 
which  accompanied  her,  having  supplied  us  with  his 
journal,  we  must  avail  ourselves  of  diaries  of  contem- 
porary voyages  if  we  would  see  them  in  imagination 
pursuing  their  way  down  the  Thames,  through   the 


Channel,  and  over  the  Atlantic.  Sea-sickness  reigned 
supreme  as  they  passed  along  the  southern  coast  of 
their  native  island ;  but  in  the  first  pleasant  weather 
after  they  had  gained  the  open  sea,  they  "  fetched  out 
the  children  and  others,  that  were  sick  and  lay  groan- 
ing in  the  cabins,  and,  having  stretched  a  rope  from  the 
steerage  to  the  mainmast,  made  them  stand,  some  on 
one  side  and  some  on  the  other,  and  sway  it  up  and 
down  till  they  were  warm.  By  this  means  they  soon 
grew  well   and   merry."     Afterward,  "when   the   ship 


56  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

heaved  and  set  more  than  usual,  a  few  were  sick,  but  of 
these  such  as  came  upon  deck  and  stirred  themselves 
were  presently  well  again ;  therefore,  our  captain  set 
our  children  and  young  men  to  some  harmless  exercises 
in  which  the  seamen  were  very  active,  and  did  our  peo- 
ple much  good,  though  they  would  sometimes  play  the 
wags  with  them."  '  Once  or  twice  during  the  voyage 
the  wind  blew  a  gale ;  and  the  passengers  being  confined 
to  the  cabin  united  in  the  observance  of  a  fast  with  a 
protracted  service  of  prayer,  which,  when  the  wind  sub- 
sided, was  followed  by  a  service  of  thanksgiving.  "  We 
constantly  served  God  morning  and  evening,  by  reading 
and  expounding  a  chapter,  singing,  and  prayer;  and 
the  sabbath  was  solemnly  kept  by  adding  to  the  former, 
preaching  twice,  and  catechising.  Besides,  the  ship- 
master and  his  company  used  every  night  to  set  their 
eight  and  twelve  o'clock  watches  with  singing  a  psalm, 
and  prayer  that  was  not  read  out  of  a  book."  ^  Some- 
times one  vessel  so  far  outsailed  her  consort,  that  she 
must  take  in  some  sail,  and  stay  for  her,  lest  the  two 
should  be  entirely  separated  for  the  remainder  of  the 
voyage.  "  Our  captain,  supposing  us  now  to  be  near 
the  coast,  fitted  on  a  new  mainsail,  that  was  very  strong 
and  double,  and  would  not  adventure  with  his  old  sails  as 
before,  when  he  had  sea-room  enough."  "This  evening 
we  saw  the  new  moon  more  than  half  an  hour  after 
sunset,  being  much  smaller  than  it  is  at  any  time  in 
England."  "About  four  this  morning,  we  sounded, 
and  had  ground  at  thirty  fathom ;  and,  it  being  some- 
what calm,  we  put  our  ship  a-stays,  and  took,  in  less 
than  two  hours,  with  a  few  hooks,  sixty-seven  codfish, 

*  Wbthrop.  ■  Higginson. 


THE   VOYAGE  OF  THE  HECTOR.  $y 

most  of  them  very  great  fish.  This  came  very  seasona- 
bly, for  our  salt  fish  was  now  spent,  and  we  were  taking 
care  for  victuals  this  day,  being  a  fish  day."  "We  had 
now  fair  sunshine  weather,  and  there  came  a  smell  off 
the  shore  like  the  smell  of  a  garden."  Four  days  later, 
both  the  ships  lay  at  anchor,  and  the  weary  voyagers 
were  on  shore,  some  gathering  store  of  fine  strawberries, 
and  others  entertained  in  the  houses  of  friends,  who 
feasted  them  with  "good  venison  pasty,  and  good  beer." 


{ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WINTER   SPENT   IN   MASSACHUSETTS. 

BOSTON  in  its  infancy  welcomed  all  Puritan  immi- 
grants. Its  inhabitants  rejoiced  in  the  growth  of 
their  town  and  of  their  colony;  they  were  pleased  \p 
find  a  market  for  the  products  of  their  gardens ;  they 
enjoyed  the  society  of  those  through  whom  they  could 
receive  tidings  from  the  mother-country,  and  with  whom 
they  could  fraternize  in  religious  worship.  In  many 
cases  they  found  among  the  new-comers  old  acquaint- 
ances, the  sight  of  whom  awakened  memories  of  the 
past  and  the  absent,  in  which,  after  so  long  an  exile 
from  home,  they  experienced  unspeakable  pleasure. 
But  the  immigrants  who  landed  in  Boston  on  the  26th 
of  June,  1637,  received  a  warmer  welcome  than  ordi- 
nary. The  eminence  of  "  the  famous  Mr.  Davenport," 
and  the  opulence  of  the  merchants  who  accompanied 
him,  gave  to  this  company,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
colonists,  an  unusual  value.  Not  only  Boston,  but  the 
whole  colony  of  Massachusetts,  was  desirous  that  they 
should  settle  within  that  Commonwealth.  "  Great  pains 
were  taken,  not  only  by  particular  persons  and  towns, 
but  by  the  General  Court,  to  fix  them  in  the  colony. 
Charlestown  made  them  large  offers ;  and  Newbury 
proposed  to  give  up  the  whole  town  to  them.  The 
58 


THE    WINTER  SPENT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.        59 

General  Court  offered  them  any  place  which  they  should 
choose!"  ' 

The  arrival  of  Davenport  was  considered  especially 
opportune  because  of  the  influence  he  might  exert  in 
bringing  to  an  end  the  controversy  which  then  divided 
the  churches  of  Massachusetts  in  regard  to  Ann  Hutch- 
inson and  the  doctrines  which  she  preached.  "  There 
are  certain  opinions  which  always  come  forth,  under 
one  form  or  another,  in  times  of  great  religious  excite- 
ment, to  dishonor  the  truth  which  they  simulate,  and 
to  defeat  the  work  of  God  by  heating  the  minds  of 
men  to  enthusiasm,  and  thus  leading,  them  into  licen- 
tiousness of  conduct.  These  opinions,  essentially  the 
same  under  many  modifications,  have  been  known  in 
various  ages  by  various  names,  as  Antinomianism, 
Familism,  and  —  in  our  day  —  Perfectionism.  Persons 
falling  into  these  errors  commonly  begin  by  talking 
mystically  and  extravagantly  about  grace,  the  indwell- 
ing of  the  Spirit,  the  identity  of  believers  with  the 
person  of  Christ,  or  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  of  God.  As 
they  proceed,  they  learn  to  despise  all  ordinances  and 
means  of  grace ;  they  put  contempt  upon  the  Bible  as  a 
mere  dead  letter,  worth  nothing  in  comparison  with 
their  inspiration  ;  they  reject  and  revile  all  civil  govern- 
ment and  order ;  and  not  unfrequently  they  end  in 
denying  theoretically  all  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  so  far  as  their  conduct  is  concerned,  and  in 
rushing  to  the  shameless  perpetration  of  the  most  loath- 
some wickedness.  This  intellectual  and  spiritual  disease 
had  broken  out  in  Massachusetts,  and  threatened  to 
become  epidemic.    An  artful,  enthusiastic,  and  eloquent 

*  Trumbull. 


60  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

woman,  forgetting  the  modesty  of  her  sex,  had  set  her- 
self up  for  a  preacher ;  and  by  the  adroitness  with  which 
she  addressed  herself  to  the  weaknesses  and  prejudices 
of  individuals  and  drew  to  her  side  the  authority  of  some 
of  the  most  honored  names  in  the  colony,  she  seemed 
likely,  not  only  to  lead  her  own  blind  followers  to  the 
wildest  extravagances,  but  to  spread  division  through 
all  the  churches.  In  this  crisis,  a  man  so  eminent  as 
Davenport,  so  much  respected  by  all  parties,  so  exempt 
from  any  participation  in  the  controversy,  so  learned  in 
the  Scriptures,  so  skilled  in  the  great  art  of  marking 
distinctions  and  detecting  fallacies,  could  not  but  be 
welcomed  by  all."  ' 

A  synod  of  "  all  the  teaching  elders  in  the  country  " 
was  called  to  discuss  the  questions  at  issue,  and  dis- 
criminate between  truth  and  error.  Of  this  assembly, 
which  began  its  sessions  Aug.  30,  and  continued  to  sit 
for  three  weeks,  Davenport  was  one  of  the  most  influ- 
ential members.  "The  wisdom  and  learning  of  this 
worthy  man,'*  says  Mather,  "  did  contribute  more  than  a 
little  to  dispel  the  fascinating  mists  which  had  suddenly 
disordered  our  affairs.'*  A  few  days  after  the  adjourn- 
ment, Davenport,  by  request  of  the  synod,  preached  a 
sermon  in  which,  "  with  much  wisdom  and  sound  argu- 
ment, he  persuaded  to  unity.**  * 

Meantime  it  had  become  evident  that  the  people  who 
had  come  from  the  mother-country  with  Davenport,  and 
acknowledged  him  as  a  leader,  were  not  content  to 
settle  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston.  Trumbull  suggests 
that  the  Antinomian  controversy  was  one  reason  why 
they  wished  to  remove  to  a  distance.      But  the  same 

*  Bacon:  Historical  Discourses.  '  Winthrop. 


THE   WINTER  SPENT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS,       6 1 

writer  says,  "  It  is  probable  that  the  motive  which  had 
the  greatest  influence  with  the  principal  men  was  the 
desire  of  being  at  the  head  of  a  new  government,  mod- 
elled, both  in  civil  and  religious  matters,  agreeably  to 
their  own  apprehensions.  In  laying  the  foundations  of 
a  new  colony,  there  was  a  fair  probability  that  they 
might  accommodate  all  matters  of  church  and  common- 
wealth to  their  own  feelings  and  sentiments.  But  in 
Massachusetts  the  principal  men  were  fixed  in  the  chief 
seats  of  government,  which  they  were  likely  to  keep, 
and  their  civil  and  religious  polity  was  already  formed." 
The  day  after  the  synod  assembled,  Theophilus  Eaton 
started  with  a  considerable  party  on  a  tour  of  explora- 
tion. The  Pequot  war  had  made  the  English  acquainted 
with  the  country  west  of  the  Connecticut  River  and 
bordering  on  Long  Island  Sound.  The  Indians  fled 
westward  after  the  destruction  of  their  fort  at  Mystic, 
and  the  English  pursued  them  as  far  as  Fairfield,  where 
on  the  13th  of  July,  seven  weeks  before  Eaton  started, 
so  many  of  the  Pequots  were  slain,  that  the  few  sur- 
vivors ceased  to  maintain  a  tribal  organization,  and 
became  incorporated  with  other  tribes.  In  this  pursuit, 
the  troops  marching  on  the  land,  and  their  vessels 
holding  a  parallel  course  on  the  water,  the  English  came 
to  a  harbor,  which  the  Indians  called  by  a  name  variously 
written  in  that  age,  but  known  in  modem  orthography 
as  Quinnipiac,  where  they  staid  several  days.  They 
were  charmed  with  the  country.  Capt.  Stoughton,  in  a 
letter  to  Gov.  Winthrop,  speaks  of  it  as  preferable  to 
Pequot  as  a  place  for  a  settlement.  He  says,  "The 
providence  of  God  guided  us  to  so  excellent  a  country 
at  Quellipioak  river,  and  so  all  along  the  coast  as  we 


62  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

traveled,  as  I  am  confident  we  have  not  the  like  as 
yet." 

In  another  letter  "from  Pequot,  the  2nd  day  of  the 
6th  week  of  our  warfare,"  he  says,  "  For  this  place  is 
scarce  worthy  much  cost.  But  if  you  would  enlarge  the 
state  and  provide  for  the  poor  servants  of  Christ  that 
are  yet  unprovided  (which  I  esteem  a  worthy  work),  I 
must  speak  my  conscience.  I  confess,  the  place  and 
places  whither  God's  providence  carried  us,  that  is,  to 
Quillepiage  River,  and  so  beyond  to  the  Dutch,  is  before 
this,  or  the  Bay  either  (so  far  as  I  can  j[udge),  abun- 
dantly." 

This  was  probably  written  Aug.  14 ;  and  the  gallant 
captain  reached  Boston  on  the  26th  of  the  same  month, 
when  he  had  opportunity  to  give  more  copious  descrip- 
tion of  what  he  had  seen. 

Capt.  Underbill  doubtless  made  report  answerable  to 
what  he  has  written  in  his  "  History  of  the  Pequot 
War,"  of  that  famous  place  called  Queenapiok.  "  It 
hath  a  fair  river,  fit  for  harboring  of  ships,  and  abounds 
with  rich  and  goodly  meadows." 

Moved  by  such  tidings,  Eaton  went  immediately  to 
view  the  place ;  and  so  well  did  he  like  it,  that,  when 
he  set  out  on  his  return  to  Boston,  he  left  seven  of  his 
men  to  remain  through  the  winter  and  make  preparation 
for  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  company.  It  was  Sep- 
tember when  he  and  his  followers  first  saw  Quinnipiac ; 
and  they  doubtless  spent  some  weeks  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, skirting  the  shore  with  their  pinnace  to  examine 
harbors  and  rivers.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Eaton, 
when  he  returned  to  Boston,  was  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own    mind,  that    Quinnipiac  was    preferable  to  any 


THE    WINTER  SPENT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS,       63 

Other  available  place  for  the  projected  plantation. 
Indeed,  Winthrop  speaks  as  if  he  thought  the  question 
already  settled  when  Eaton  started  on  his  tour  of  ex- 
ploration. Under  date  of  Aug.  31,  he  says,  "  Mr.  Eaton 
and  some  others  of  Mr.  Davenport's  company  went  to 
view  Quinnipiac  with  intent  to  begin  a  plantation 
there.  They  had  many  offers  here,  and  at  Plymouth, 
and  they  had  viewed  many  places,  but  none  would 
content."  But  in  a  matter  of  so  great  importance  it 
was  necessary  to  proceed  slowly.  The  exploring  party 
must  report  to  those  who  had  remained  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  all  the  shareholders  must  have  a  voice  in 
selecting  a  place  for  their  plantation.  Perhaps  it  was 
already  too  late  in  the  year  to  build  houses  that  would* 
sufficiently  shelter  women  and  children  from  the  rigor 
of  the  approaching  winter,  even  if  the  work  were 
commenced  immediately.  Certainly  it  was  deemed 
expedient  to  remain  in  Massachusetts  till  the  opening 
of  spring;  and  this  was  the  expectation  when  Eaton, 
leaving  seven  men  at  Quinnipiac,  returned  to  Boston 
to  make  his  report. 

Joshua  Atwater,  Francis  Brown,  John  Beecher, 
Robert  Pigg,  and  Thomas  Hogg  were  of  the  seven. 
The  names  of  the  others  have  not  been  preserved. 
One  of  the  seven  died  during  the  winter ;  and  his 
bones  were  found  in  the  year  1750,  in  digging  the  tellar 
of  the  stone  house  at  the  corner  of  George  and  Meadow 
Streets.'     The  hut  which  sheltered  these  adventurous 

'  I  think  that  the  man  who  died  was  John  Beecher,  as  his  name  does 
not  occur  on  the  earlier  records,  and  there  was  a  widow  Beecher  whose 
son  Isaac  was  old  enough  in  1644  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity.  Dr.  Dana 
has  preserved  the  tradition  that  Joshua  Atwater  was  one  of  the  seven  who 
remained  at  Quinnipiac  during  the  winter:  Lambert  mentions  the  four 
other  names. 


64  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

men  was  near  the  creek,  and  about  fifty  rods  west  of 
the  place  where  the  survivors  buried  the  body  of  their 
comrade.  A  copious  spring  which  once  issued  from 
the  bank  between  George  Street  and  the  creek,  and  was 
covered  when  the  creek  was  converted  into  a  sewer, 
may  have  determined  the  location  of  the  hut.  We  may 
imagine  that  they  spent  their  time  in  hewing,  cleaving, 
and  sawing,  in  hunting  and  trapping,  and  in  collecting, 
by  means  of  barter  with  the  natives,  beaver  and  other 
furs  for  the  European  market.  If,  like  their  brethren 
at  Saybrook,  they  had  dogs,  they  might,  by  enclosing 
their  house  with  palisades,  lie  down  to  sleep  with  as 
little  danger  of  being  surprised  by  an  enemy,  as  if  they 
had  been  in  Boston.  Whatever  communication  they 
had  with  their  friends  during  the  winter,  must  l\^ve 
been  by  means  of  special  messengers.  Indian  runners 
were  easily  found  to  perform  such  a  service.'  We  shall 
presently  see,  that  before  the  12th  of  March,  letters  had 
been  sent  by  their  friends  in  Massachusetts,  directing 
them  to  transact  with  the  natives  for  the  purchase  of 
land.  Doubtless  the  same  letters  instructed  them  to 
build  huts,  and  make  all  possible  provision  for  the 
comfort  of  those  who  were  to  arrive. 

With  the  exception  of  these  seven,  the  people  who 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  Hector  and  her  consort 
remained  in  Boston  or  in  the  vicinity  during  the  winter, 
many  of  them  having  found  employment  suitable  to 
their  several  vocations.  Though  somewhat  scattered, 
some  finding  lodgings  and  employment  in  one  place 
and  some  in  another,  they  were  still  an  organized  com- 

'  Trumbull  quotes  Roger  Williams  as  saying,  "  I  have  known  them  run 
between  eighty  and  a  hundred  miles  in  a  summer*s  day.'* 


THE   WINTER  SPENT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS,        65 

pany,  and  as  such  were  required  by  the  government  of 
Massachusetts  to  pay  taxes  as  if  they  had  already 
settled  as  a  town  in  that  Commonwealth.  A  tax  was 
levied  by  the  General  Court,  in  November  after  their 
arrival,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  Pequot  war.  The 
sum  required  was  a  thousand  pounds,  of  which  nine 
hundred  and  eighty  pounds  was  assessed  upon  the  sev- 
eral towns ;  the  name  of  Mr,  Eaton  being  added  to  the 
list  of  towns,  with  the  minute,  "  Mr.  Eaton  is  left  out 
of  this  rate,  leaving  it  to  his  discretion  what  he  will 
freely  give  toward  these  charges."  .The  difference 
between  the  amount  required,  and  the  amount  of  the 
assessments,  indicates  what  sum  it  was  desired  that  Mr. 
Eaton  should  "freely  give ; "  and  the  discretion  allowed 
him  was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  these  expenses 
had  been  for  the  most  part  incurred  before  he  and  his 
party  arrived  in  the  country ;  the  destruction  of  the  fort 
at  Mystic,  which  was  the  great  event  of  the  war,  having 
taken  place  on  the  26th  of  May,  a  full  month  before 
the  Hector  cast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Boston.  But 
when  another  rate  was  levied,  on  the  twelfth  day  of 
March  of  the  following  year,  amounting  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred pounds,  Mr.  Eaton's  name  was  again  appended  to 
the  list  of  towns  with  an  assessment  of  twenty  pounds, 
and  without  intimation  that  payment  was  optional. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  coincidence  that  this  second  tax  is 
of  the  same  date  with  the  following  letter :  — 

"It  may  please  the  worthy  and  much  honored  Governor,  Dep- 
uty, and  Assistants,  and  with  them  the  present  Court,  to  take 
knowledge,  that  our  desire  of  staying  within  this  patent  was  real 
and  strong,  if  the  eye  of  God^s  providence  (to  whom  we  have  com- 
mitted our  ways,  especially  in  so  important  an  enterprise  as  this, 


66  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

which,  we  confess,  is  far  above  our  capacities)  had  guided  us  to  a 
place  convenient  for  our  families  and  friends.  Which,  as  our 
words  have  often  expressed,  so,  we  hope,  the  truth  thereof  is 
sufficiently  declared  by  our  almost  nine  months'  patient  waiting 
in  expectation  of  some  opportunity  to  be  offered  us,  for  that  end, 
to  our  great  charge  and  hindrance  many  ways.  In  all  which 
time  we  have,  in  many  prayers,  commended  the  guidance  of  our 
apprehensions,  judgments,  spirits,  resolutions,  and  ways  into  the 
good  hand  of  the  only  wise  God,  whose  prerogative  it  is  to  deter- 
mine the  bounds  of  our  habitations,  according  to  the  ends  for  which 
he  hath  brought  us  into  these  countries ;  and  we  have  considered, 
as  we  were  able,  by  his  help,  whatsoever  place  hath  been  pro- 
pounded to  us,  b^ng  ready  to  have  with  contentment  accepted 
(if  by  our  stay  any  public  good  might  be  promoted)  smaller  accom- 
modations and  upon  dearer  terms  (if  they  might  be  moderately 
commodious)  than,  we  believe,  most  men,  in  the  same  case  with  us 
,  in  all  respects,  would  have  done.  And  whereas  a  place  for  an  inland 
plantation,  beyond  Watertown,  was  propounded  to  us,  and  pressed 
with  much  importunity  by  some,  whose  words  have  the  power  of  a 
law  with  us,  in  any  way  of  God,  we  did  speedily  and  seriously  delib- 
erate thereupon,  it  being  the  subject  of  the  greatest  part  of  a  day's 
discourse.  The  conclusion  was  that,  if  the  upland  should  answer 
the  meadow  ground  in  goodness  and  desirableness,  (whereof  yet 
there  is  some  cause  of  doubting,)  yet,  considering  that  a  boat  can- 
not pass  from  the  bay  thither,  nearer  than  eight  or  ten  miles  dis- 
tance, and  that  it  is  so  remote  from  the  bay,  and  from  any  town, 
we  could  not  see  how  our  dwelling  there  would  be  advantageous  to 
these  plantations  or  compatible  with  our  conditions  or  commodious 
for  our  families  or  for  our  friends.  Nor  can  we  satisfy  ourselves 
that  it  is  expedient  for  ourselves,  or  for  our  friends,  that  we  choose 
such  a  condition,  wherein  we  must  be  compelled  to  have  our  dwell- 
ing houses  so  far  distant  from  our  farms  as  Boston  or  Charlestown 
is  from  that  place,  few  of  our  friends  being  able  to  bear  the  charge 
thereof,  (whose  cases,  nevertheless,  we  are  bound  to  consider,)  and 
some  of  them,  that  are  able,  not  being  persuaded  that  it  is  lawful  for 
them  to  live  continually  from  the  greatest  part  of  their  families,  as 
in  this  case  they  would  be  necessitated  to  do.  The  season  of  the 
year,  and  other  weighty  considerations,  compelled  us  to  hasten  to 


THE   WINTER  SPENT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS,       6/ 

a  full  and  final  conclusion,  which  we  are  at  last  come  unto,  by 
God's  appointment  and  direction,  we  hope,  in  mercy,  and  have  sent 
letters  to  Connecticut  for  a  speedy  transacting  the  purchase  of 
the  parts  about  Quillypiac  from  the  natives  which  may  pretend 
title  thereunto.  By  which  act  we  absolutely  and  irrevocably  en- 
gaged that  way ;  and  we  are  persuaded  that  God  will  order  it  for 
good  unto  these  plantations,  whose  love  so  abundantly  above  our 
deserts  or  expectations,  expressed  in  your  desire  of  our  abode  in 
these  parts,  as  we  shall  ever  retain  in  thankful  memory,  so  we  shall 
account  ourselves  thereby  obliged  to  be  any  way  instrumental  and 
serviceable  for  the  common  good  of  these  plantations  as  well  as 
of  those ;  which  the  divine  providence  hath  combined  together  in 
as  strong  a  bond  of  brotherly  affection,  by  the  sameness  of  their 
condition,  as  Joab  and  Abishai  were,  whose  several  armies  did 
mutually  strengthen  them  both  against  their  several  enemies,  ii. 
Sam.  X.  9, 10, 1 1 ;  or  rather  they  are  joined  together,  as  Hippocrates 
his  twins,  to  stand  and  fall,  to  grow  and  decay,  to  flourish  and 
wither,  to  live  and  die,  together.  In  witness  of  the  premises  we 
subscribe  our  names, 


^nJ^a/b2/n^(>  7/lt 


C^[:i(lm^\   CoMnu 


(I 


The  I2th  day  of  the  ist  month,  1638." 


This  letter,  which  is  still  preserved,  is  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Davenport,  but  is  superscribed  as  follows  in 
the  handwriting  of  Eaton  :  "  To  the  much  honored,  the 
Governor,  Deputy,  and  Assistants."  From  this  commu- 
nication it  appears  that  even  if  Eaton  had  returned  from 
his  tour  of  exploration  fully  expecting  that  be  and  his 


•  • 


68  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

company  would  settle  at  Quinnipiac,  he  had  not  so  fully 
expressed  his  determination  as  to  preclude  further 
effort  to  persuade  him  to  remain  in  Massachusetts.  It 
further  appears  that  before  the  date  of  this  communi- 
cation the  company  had  formally  decided  to  fix  their 
plantation  at  Quinnipiac,  and  had  sent  notice  thereof 
to  those  who  were  already  on  the  ground.  Eighteen 
days  afterward,  that  is,  on  the  30th  of  March,  the  leaders 
of  the  company  and  most  of  their  followers  embarked 
at  Boston.  After  a  tedious  voyage  of  "about  a  fort- 
night they  arrived  at  their  desired  port."  *  Winthrop 
thus  narrates  their  departure :  "  Mr.  Davenport  and 
Mr.  Prudden  and  a  brother  of  Mr.  Eaton,  (being  minis- 
ters also,)  went  by  water  to  Quinnipiac ;  and  with 
them  many  families  removed  out  of  this  jurisdiction  to 
plaat  in  those  parts,  being  much  taken  with  the  opinion 
of  the  fruitfulness  of  that  place  and  more  safety  (as 
they  conceived)  filom  danger  of  a  general  governor, 
who  was  feared  to  be  sent  this  summer ;  which  though 
it  were  a  great  weakening  to  these  parts,  yet  we  ex- 
pected to  see  a  good  providence  of  God  in  it,  (for  all 
possible  means  had  been  used  to  accommodate  them 
here ;  Charlestown  offered  them  largely,  Newbury  their 
whole  town,  the  court  any  place  which  was  free,)  both 
for  possessing  those  parts  which  lay  open  for  an  enemy, 
and  for  strengthening  our  friends  at  Connecticut,  and 
for  making  room  here  for  many,  who  were  expected  out 
of  England  this  year,  and  for  diverting  the  thoughts  and 
intentions  of  such  in  England  as  intended  evil  against 
us,  whose  designs  might  be  frustrate  by  our  scattering 
so  far ;  and  such  as  were  now  gone  that  way  were  a? 
much  in  the  eye  of  the  state  of  England  as  we  here." 

«  Trumbull. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   FIRST  YEAR  AT   QUINNIPIAC. 

THE  company  which  came  from  London  in  the 
Hector  and  her  consort,  numbered  about  fifty 
adult  men ;  or,  including  women,  children,  and  servants, 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  persons.  But  so  great  was 
the  enthusiasm  excited  by  tHe  report  which  the  soldiers 
brought  of  Quinnipiac,  and  so  strong  the  confidence 
felt  in  the  leaders  of  the  expedition,  that  when  the 
company  left  Boston  in  the  spring  of  1638  its  num- 
ber was  considerably  increased  by  accessions  from 
Massachusetts.  Skirting  the  coast,  and  perhaps  calling 
at  Saybrook  fort  where  Lion  Gardiner,  an  old  acquaint- 
ance of  Davenport,  commanded,'  they  at  last  reached 
the  harbor  of  Quinnipiac.  West  of  the  river  of  that 
name,  they  saw  two  smaller  streams  pouring  into  the 
harbor,  each  sufficient  to  float  such  a  vessel  as  theirs. 
The  mouth  of  the  East  Creek  was  where  the  railway 
now  crosses  East  Water  Street,  and  vessels  entering  it 
could  be  floated  up,  over  what  is  now  the  bed  of  the  rail- 

*  Gardiner,  in  his  relation  of  the  Pequot  wars,  says  that  it  was 
**  through  the  persuasion  of  Mr.  John  Davenport  and  Mr.  Hugh  Peters, 
with  some  other  well-affected  Englishmen  of  Rotterdam,"  that  he  left  the 
service  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  Holland  to  serve  the  patentees  of  Con- 
necticut— Mms.  Hist  CdL  XXIILt  p.  136. 

«9 


yo  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

way,  as  far  as  Chapel  Street.'  The  West  Creek  emptied 
its  waters  where  the  sewer  now  crosses  West  Water 
Street.  Still  farther  westward,  beyond  Oyster  Point, 
the  West  River  also  emptied  its  waters  into  the  harbor. 
Up  the  West  Creek  sailed  Davenport  and  his  compan- 
ions, gazing  with  interest  on  the  wilderness  which 
was  to  be  their  home.  They  saw  a  plain  extending 
inland  about  two  miles,  at  which  distance  stood  basaltic 
rocks  colored  with  iron,  and  so  prominent  in  the  land- 
scape that  the  Dutch  had  called  the  place  Rodenbergh 
or  Red  Mount.  It  was  well  supplied  with  timber,  but 
there  were  spaces  where  the  natives  had  raised  suc- 
cessive harvests  of  maize.  A  dense  forest  covered  a 
small  tract  where  the  "spruce  masts"  grew;  but  the 
larger  portion  was  an  open  forest,  promising  to  supply 
sufficient  timber  for  building  houses  and  fences,  with 
perhaps  a  little  surplus  for  exportation  in  the  form  of 
clapboards  and  shingles.  The  tree  under  which  they 
held  their  service  of  worship  on  the  first  sabbath  after 
their  arrival  was  a  spreading  oak  which  had  not  lacked 
room  for  development.  Before  the  expiration  of  the 
second  year  it  was  ordered  by  the  General  Court  that 
"no  man  shall  cut  any  timber  down,  but  where  he 
shall  be  assigned  by  the  magistrate,  except  on  his  own 
ground."  Such  an  enactment  implies  that  there  was 
no  superabundance  of  timber  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
settlement. 

On  the  west  side  of  this  plain  were  broad  salt  meadows, 
bordering  the  West  River  on  either  bank,  and  extending 
inland  almost  to  the  Red  Hill  which  the  planters  called 
the  West  Rock.      On  the  east  side  of  the  plain  were 

'  N.  H.  Col.  Rec  I.  143. 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  J I 

still  more  extensive  salt  meadows  spread  out  on  both 
sides  of  the  Quinnipiac,  or  East  River,  and  also  on  both 
sides  of  a  stream  flowing  into  it  a  short  distance  above 
its  outlet,  which  the  settlers  named  Mill  River  as  soon 
as  they  were  able  to  erect  a  mill.  The  meadows  on  the 
Quinnipiac  extended  northward  much  farther  than  those 
on  W^st  River.  These  salt  meadows  on  both  sides  of 
the  plain,  yielding  abundant  provender  without  delay 
and  without  labor,  had  greatly  influenced  the  company 
in  choosing  this  place  for  their  plantation.  Invisible 
from  the  deck  of  the  pinnace,  they  were  doubtless 
eagerly  inquired  for  by  those  who  had  not  been  of  the 
exploring  party.  But,  though  rendered  invisible  by 
the  intervention  of  higher  ground,  they  so  much  widened 
the  view,  that  on  one  side  the  eye  could  reach  the.  hills 
beyond  the  West  River,  and,  on  the  other,  the  highlands 
beyond  the  Quinnipiac. 

The  temporary  shelters,  which  the  first  planters  of 
New  England  provided  for  their  families  till  they  could 
erect  permanent  dwellings,  were  of  different  kinds. 
Some  planters  carried  tents  with  them  to  the  place 
chosen  for  a  new  home  ;  some  built  wigwams  like  those 
of  the  natives.  Either  species  would  suffice  in  summer ; 
but  for  winter  they  usually  built  huts,  as  they  called 
them,  similar  to  the  modern  log-cabins  in  the  forests  of 
the  West,  though  in  some  instances  if  not  in  most,  they 
were  roofed,  after  the  English  fashion,  with  thatch.  It 
was  perhaps  a  peculiarity  of  New  Haven,  that  cellars 
were  used  for  temporary  habitations.  They  were,  as 
the  name  suggests,  partially  under  ground,  and  perhaps 
in  most  cases  on  a  hill-side.  If  built  on  the  bank  be- 
tween the  West  Creek  and  George  Street,  with  aper- 


72  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

tures  opening  to  the  south,  they  would  be  open  to 
the  sun  and  sheltered  from  the  northern  winds.  Rev. 
Michael  Wigglesworth,'  who  came  to  Quinnipiac  with 
his  parents  in  October,  1638,  when  he  was  about  seven 
years  old,  describes  the  cellar  in  which  the  family  spent 
the  first  winter,  as  covered  with  earth  on  the  roof. 
Such  a  covering  might  be  effectual  to  exclude  th%  cold 
winds  of  winter,  but,  as  the  boy's  experience  proves,  it 
was  a  poor  protection  from  a  heavy  rain.  When  he  was 
an  old  man  he  remembered  how  he  had  been,  while 
asleep,  drenched  with  water  permeating  the  muddy  roof, 
and  had  been  afflicted  in  consequence  with  a  dangerous 
illness.  Doubtless  the  party  which  had  wintered  at  the 
place  had  made  ready  not  only  a  public  storehouse,  but 
sevei:al  huts  or  cellars  in  which  their  friends  who  were 
to  arrive  might  temporarily  shelter  their  families.  These 
would  be  visible  to  the  new-comers  as  they  approached 
the  shore  and  ascended  the  creek. 

The  pinnace  in  which  they  had  made  the  voyage  was 
perhaps  the  property  of  some  of  the  company,  for  such  a 
vessel  would  be  constantly  in  requisition  for  various  ser- 
vices to  the  inhabitants  of  a  new  plantation.  But,  even 
if  owned  in  Boston,  she  would  remain  for  some  days  till 
accommodations  on  shore  could  be  provided  for  all. 

It  was  Friday  when  they  left  Boston ;  and,  as  they 
are  said  to  have  spent  about  a  fortnight  on  the  voyage, 
it  was  the  latter  part  of  the  week  when  they  arrived. 
On  the  sabbath  they  worshipped  under  an  oak-tree  near 
the  landing ;  and  Mr.  Davenport,  in  a  sermon  on  Matt, 
iv.  I,  "insisted  on  the  temptations  of  the  wilderness, 
made  such  observations,  and  gave  such  directions  and 

'  See  his  autobiographical  paper  in  Appendix  I. 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC,  J I 

exhortations,  as  were  perthient  to  the  then  present  con- 
dition of  his  hearej's."  He  left  this  remark,  that  he 
"enjoyed  a  good  day."  *  Lambert  says  that  Mr.  Prud- 
den  preached  in  the  afternoon,  but  does  not  give  his 
authority.  It  was  perhaps  a  Milford  tradition,  and  it 
has  inherent  probability. 

In  the  valedictory  letter  of  Davenport  and  Eaton  to 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  they  say,  "We 
have  sent  letters  to  Connecticut  for  a  speedy  transact- 
ing the  purchase  of  the  parts  about  Quinnipiac  from  the 
natives.*'  The  purchase  had  probably  been  effected 
before  their  arrival  in  April,  though  no  written  deed 
was  signed  till  the  following  November.  The  natives, 
therefore,  were  expecting  the  large  re-enforcement  re- 
ceived by  the  six  Englishmen  with  whom  they  were 
now  well  acquainted.  They  welcomed  the  new-comers, 
and  were  pleased  to  have  in  their  neighborhood  a  planta- 
tion of  Englishmen,  to  which  they  might  retreat  when 
molested  by  their  enemies,  and  where  they  might  bar- 
ter their  venison,  pelts,  and  furs,  for  the  much-admired 
tools  and  trinkets  of  the  English.  They  now  for  the 
first  time  saw  English  women  and  children  ;  and  their 
curiosity,  which,  in  respect  to  the  little  company  left  by 
Eaton  in  the  preceding  autumn,  had  waned,  again  drew 
them  to  the  border  of  the  West  Creek.     The  medal 

'  Trumbull,  i.  96.  It  is  apparent  that  Trumbull  had '  access  to  some 
diary  or  other  written  statement  of  Davenport.  The  oak-tree  was  about 
twenty  feet  north  of  George  Street,  and  about  forty-five  feet  east  of  Col- 
lege Street  It  is  said  that  a  section  of  the  tree  afterward  supported  the 
anril  on  which  two  stalwart  generations  of  Beechers  hammered,  before 
Lyman  Beecher  transferred  the  role  of  the  family  from  the  anvil  to  the 
pulpit.  Their  shop  was  in  College  Street,  near  the  place  where  the  tree 
had  stood. 


74  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Struck  two  centuries  afterward,  in  commemoration  of 
the  settlement  of  the  town,  very  properly  represents 
some  of  them  sitting  near  the  company  assembled 
on  Sunday  under  the  oak-tree.  Here  they  witnessed 
the  wotship  which  the  English  rendered  to  the  Great 
Spirit.  Here  they  began  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
preacher  whom  afterward  they  characterized  as  "  so-big- 
study  man," 


The  English  soon  after  their  arrival  at  Quinnipiac 
observed  a  day  of  extraordinary  humiliation,  when  they 
formed  a  social  compact,  mutually  promising  "that  as 
in  matters  that  concern  the  gathering  and  ordering  of 
a  church,  so  likewise  in  all  public  offices,  which  concern 
civil  order,  as  choice  of  magistrates  and  officers,  making 
and  repealing  of  laws,  dividing  allotments  of  inheritance, 
and  all  things  of  like  nature,"  they  would  all  of  them  be 
ordered  by  those  rules  which  the  Scripture  holds  forth. 
For  more  than  a  year  they  had  ho  other  civil  or  eccle- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  7$ 

siastical  organization.  There  were  doubtless  frequent 
meetings  for  the  transaction  of  business,  and,  if  we  may 
judge  of  that  year  by  the  years  that  followed,  there  were 
penalties  inflicted  on  evil-doers.  But,  if  any  individuals 
were  authorized  to  act  as  magistrates,  the  record  of  their 
appointment  has  not  been  preserved.  The  plantation 
covenant,  like  the  compact  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the 
Mayflower,  was  a  provisional  arrangement  of  men,  who, 
finding  themselves  beyond  the  actual  jurisdiction  of  any 
earthly  government,  attempted  to  govern  themselves 
according  to  the  law  of  God. 

The  first  care  of  the  planters  was  to  choose  a  site 
for  their  future  town ;  the  next  to  lay  out  streets  and 
house-lots,  so  that  each  family  might  as  soon  as  possible 
make  preparations  for  gardening  and  building.  Tradi- 
tion reports  that  they  would  have  chosen  Oyster  Point 
but  for  the  difficulty  of  digging  wells,  water  being  ob- 
tained in  that  neighborhood  only  at  great  depth.  They 
decided,  however,  to  locate  the  principal  part  of  their 
town  on  the  north  side  of  the  West  Creek,  rather  than 
on  the  s6Hth  side,  and  to  make  a  line  parallel  with  that 
stream  and  near  its  border,  the  base-line  of  the  town- 
plot. 

Accordingly  George  Street  was  laid  out  half  a  mile  in 
length  and  upon  it  as  a  base,  a  square  was  described. 
The  half-mile  square  not  being  sufficient,  two  suburbs 
were  added.  One  consisted  of  a  four-sided  piece  whose 
shape  and  dimensions  were  determined  by  the  two 
creeks  as  the  water  ran  when  nearing  the  harbor.  It 
was  bounded  by  George,  Water,  Meadow,  and  State 
Streets.  The  other  was  on  the  west  side  of  the  West 
Creek.     Changes   since  made  in  the  highways  render 


76  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

difficult  the  task  of  defining  it ;  but  Hill  Street  was  its 
eastern,  or  more  properly  north-eastern,  boundary. 

The  square  described  on  George  Street  was  divided 
by  two  parallel  streets  running  east  and  west,  and  by 
two  parallel  streets  running  north  and  south,  into  nine 
equal  squares ;  of  which  the  square  in  the  centre  was 
sequestered  as  a  market-place.  The  remaining  eight 
squares  and  the  suburbs  were  divided  into  house-lots, 
and  assigned  to  the  planters  severally,  who  seem  to 
have  grouped  themselves,  to  some  extent,  according  to 
personal  acquaintance  and  friendship  in  the  old  country. 
The  Herefordshire  men,  for  example,  had  their  lots  on 
the  south-west  and  south-centre  squares,  or  quarters,  as 
they  were  then  called.  The  eight  squares  were  for  a 
long  time  distinguished  one  from  another  by  the  names 
of  some  prominent  persons  who  lived  on  the  quarters 
to  which  their  names  were  respectively  applied.  The 
north-east  square  was  called  Mr.  Eaton's  quarter,  or  in 
later  years  the  Governor's  quarter.  The  north-centre 
was  Mr.  Robert  Newman's  quarter.  The  north-west 
was  Mr.  Tench's  quarter.  The  west-centre  was  Mr. 
Evance's  quarter,  or,  for  a  reason  which  will  be  ex- 
plained hereafter,  the  Yorkshire  quarter.  The  south- 
west was  Mr.  Fowler's,  or  the  Herefordshire  quarter. 
Mr.  Gregson's  name  was  applied  to  the  south-centre, 
Mr.  Lamberton's  to  the  south-east,  and  Mr.  Daven- 
port's to  the  east-centre.  The  suburbs  were  sufficiently 
indicated  by  that  appellation  without  attaching  the  name 
of  an  inhabitant.  In  the  division  of  out-lands  the  two 
suburbs  were  united  together  as  one  society  or  quarter. 
Four  lots  situated  on  East  Water  Street  were  included 
with  Mr.  Davenport's  quarter,  as  one  of  the  nine  quar- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC,  7/ 

ters  or  societies  into  which  the  town  was  divided  for 
the  allotment  of  out-lands. 

John  Brockett  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  sur- 
•veyor ;  and  he  doubtless  is  responsible  for  the  accuracy 
of  angles,  and  the  equality  of  the  nine  equal  sections 
into  which  he  was  required  to  cut  the  larger  square  first 
laid  out.  The  dimensions  of  the  town  plot  may  have 
been  determined  by  the  course  of  the  creeks ;  for  George 
Street,  if  it  had  been  continued  a  few  rods  farther  west, 
would  have  crossed  the  West  Creek,  which  in  its  course 
made  an  angle  of  about  ninety  degrees  near  that  point. 

The  town-plot  having  been  laid  out,  the  sections  into 
which  it  was  cut  by  its  streets  were  assigned  to  groups 
of  families  drawn  together  by  social  affinity,  and  were 
severally  divided  among  those  families  in  house-lots  dif- 
fering in  dimensions  according  to  a  ratio  depending 
partly  on  the  number  of  persons  in  the  family,  and 
partly  on  the  amount  the  family  had  invested  in  the 
common  stock  of  the  proprietors.  Among  the  minor 
benefits  secured  by  this  elective  grouping,  was  delay  in 
building  division  fences.  Each  quarter,  being  immedi- 
ately Enclosed  by  a  fence  separating  it  from  the  high- 
way, was  ready  for  tillage.  These  fences  were  sometimes 
of  pickets  ahd  sometimes  of  rails.  In  June,  1640,  prices 
for  both  kinds  were  established  by  law.  Fencing 
with  pales  must  be  "not  above  two  shillings  a  rod 
for  felling  and  cleaving  posts  and  rails,  cross-cutting, 
hewing,  mortising,  digging  holes,  setting  up  and  nailing 
on  the  pales,  the  work  being  in  all  the  parts  well  wrought 
and  finished ;  but,  in  this  price,  pales  and  carting  of  the 
stuff  not  included."  "Fencing  with  five  rails,  substan- 
tial posts,  good  rails,  well  wrought,  set  up,  and  rammed, 


78  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

that  pigs,  swine,  goats,  and  other  cattle  may  be  kept 
out,  not  above  two  shillings  a  rod."  A  year  later  these 
rates  were  reduced  twenty-five  per  cent,  the  reduction 
being  probably  due  to  the  ebbing  of  that  tide  of  emigra- 
tion which,  till  the  civil  war  in  the  mother-country  com- 
menced, had  constantly  supplied  New  England  with 
money,  and  a  market  for  labor  as  well  as  for  cattle  and 
other  products  of  husbandry. 

There  was  time  for  building  all  these  fences  before 
the  season  had  sufficiently  advanced  to  justify  the  col- 
onists in  planting  gardens  or  driving  cattle  across  the 
country  from  Massachusetts.  The  cold,  which  had  been 
unusually  severe  during  the  winter,  was  protracted  into 
the  months  of  spring.  Winthrop  records  on  the  twenty- 
third  day  of  April,  "  This  was  a  very  hard  winter.  The 
snow  lay,  from  November  4th  to  March  23d,  half  a  yard 
deep  about  the  Massachusetts,  and  a  yard  deep  beyond 
the  Merrimack,  and  so  the  more  north,  the  deeper ;  and 
the  spring  was  very  backward.  This  day  it  did  snow 
two  hours  together  (after  much  rain  from  the  north-east) 
with  flakes  as  great  as  shillings."  Again  he  writes  on 
the  2d  of  May,  "  The  spring  was  so  cold,  that  men  were 
forced  to  plant  their  com  two  or  three  times,  for  it 
rotted  in  the  ground."  But  notwithstanding  this  un- 
propitious  beginning,  which  threatened  a  dearth  through 
all  New  England,  warm  weather  afterward  brought  on 
corn  beyond  expectation  ;  and  Quinnipiac  seems  to  have 
shared  in  the  blessing  of  a  good  harvest,  so  that  there 
was  no  such  scarcity  of  bread  as  there  had  been  at  Hart- 
ford the  preceding  winter,  when  the  price  of  Indian  com 
rose  to  twelve  shillings  per  bushel,  which  was  five  or  six 
times  its  usual  value. 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  79 

While  some  were  planting  and  fencing,  others  were 
preparing  lumber  for  the  erection  of  permanent  dwell- 
ings. Having  no  mill  for  sawing,  they  were  obliged  to 
slit  the  logs  by  hand ;  and  the  tariff  of  prices  prescribes 
how  much  more  the  "top-man,  or  he  that  guides  the 
work  and  perhaps  finds  the  tools,'*  shair  receive  than 
"the  pit-man,  whose  skill  and  charge  is  less."  The  log 
was  first  hewn  square,  and  then  placed  on  a  frame  over 
a  pit,  so  that  a  man  could  stand  beneath  and  assist  in 
moving  the  saw.  This  department  of  industry  de- 
manded their  earliest  attention  ;  so  that  the  boards, 
being  exposed  to  the  winds  of  spring  and  the  heat  of 
summer,  might  be  ready  for  the  carpenter  as  soon  as 
possible.  •  The  price  of  inch  boards  must  not  exceed 
five  shillings  and  ninepence  per  hundred  feet  if  sold 
in  the  woods,  or  seven  shillings  and  ninepence  if 
sold  in  the  town.  But,  as  this  tariff  was  established 
in  1640,  prices  may  have  been  somewhat  less  in 
1638,  when  the  town-plot  furnished  all  the  lumber 
required  for  immediate  use.  Indeed,  the  price  of 
lumber  had  fallen  considerably  in  1641,  when  inch 
boards  must  not  be  sold  above  four  shillings  and 
eightpence  per  hundred  in  the  woods,  or  above  six 
shillings  in  the  town. 

Before  winter  most  of  the  colonists  who  had  arrived 
in  April  were  living  on  their  house-lots,  leaving  their 
cellars  or  other  temporary  shelters  for  new-comers. 
Some  of  the  houses,  being  occupied  by  persons  of  small 
estates,  were  presumably  such  as  a  Dutch  traveller  saw 
at  Plymouth,  and  describes  as  block-houses  built  of  hewn 
logs.  Such  a  presumption  explains  an  item  in  a  bill  of 
sale  by  which  one  of  the  first  plai;^ters  alienated  his 


80  HISTORY  QF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

house  and  house-lot  and  ''two  loads  of  clay  brought 
home."  The  clay  was  doubtless  to  be  "daubed"  be- 
tween the  logs.  From  the  mention  of  thatchers,  and 
the  precautions  taken  against  fire,  it  may  be  inferred 
that  these  humbler  tenements  were  roofed  with  thatch. 
Many  of  the  houses,  however,  were  of  framed  timber, 
and  were  covered  with  shingles  or  clapboards  on  the 
sides,  and  with  shingles  on  the  roof.  Quinnipiac  had  a 
larger  proportion  of  wealthy  men  than  any  other  of  the 
New  England  colonies.  Some  of  them,  having  been 
accustomed  to  live  in  large  and  elegant  houses  in 
London,  expended  liberally  in  providing  new  homes. 
It  was  but  natural  that  they  should  wish  to  maintain  a 
style  not  much  inferior  to  the  style  in  which  they  had 
formerly  lived ;  and  as  they  confidently  thought  they 
were  founding  a  commercial  town  in  a  country  so  rich 
in  resources  that  on  a  single  cargo  exported  to  England 
they  could  afford  to  pay  duties  to  the  amount  of  three 
thousand  pounds,  they  justified  themselves  in  a  liberal 
expenditure  in  building  their  houses.  If  they  had  fore- 
seen the  political  changes  in  England  which  after  a  few 
years  turned  the  flow  of  emigration  backward  toward 
the  mother-country,  —  even  if  they  had  known  that  their 
plantation  must  depend  on  husbandry  more  than  on  com- 
merce,—  they  might  have  been  content  with  less  ex- 
pensive dwellings.  As  it  was,  they  drew  upon  them- 
selves the  criticism  of  brethren  in  the  other  colonies. 
Hubbard  the  historian,  who  in  1638  was  seventeen  years 
old,  speaks  of  their  "error  in  great  buildings,"  and  after- 
ward says,  "  They  laid  out  too  much  of  their  stocks  and 
estates  in  building  of  fair  and  stately  houses,  wherein 
they  at  the  first  outdid  the  rest  of  the  country."    Tradi- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  8 1 

tion  reports  that  the  house  of  Theophilus  Eaton  was  so 
large  as  to  have  nineteen  fireplaces,  and  that  it  was 
lofty  as  well  as  large.  Davenport's  house,  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  street,  is  said  to  have  had  thirteen 
fireplaces.' 

It  is  not  necessary  to  believe  that  any  of  the  "  fair 
and  stately"  houses  in  Quinnipiac  were  finished  in 
1638.  If  the  frame  were  set  up  and  covered,  and  a  few 
rooms  were  made  ready  to  be  occupied  by  the  family, 
the  remainder  of  the  work  might  be  postponed  till  the 
next  summer. 

In  October  the  planters  welcomed  an  accession  to 
their  number  which  they  regarded  as  an  earnest  of  still 
greater  enlargement.  Ezekiel  Rogers,  a  minister  of 
high  standing  in  Yorkshire,  having  embarked  act  Hull 
on  the  H  umber,  with  a  company  who  personally  knew 
him  and  desired  to  enjoy  his  ministry,  arrived  in  Bos- 
ton late  in  the  summer.  Such  representations  were 
made  to  him  by  Davenport  and  Eaton  or  their  agents, 
that  he  engaged  to  come  with  his  followers  to  Quinni- 
piac ;  and  within  eight  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Massa- 
chusetts a  portion  of  his  people  came  by  water  to  the 
new  settlement,  encountering  on  the  voyage  a  storm 
which  drove  them  upon  a  beach  of  sand  where  they  lay 
rocking  till  another  tide  floated  them  off.  Rogers,  ex- 
pecting to  be  joined  in  a  year  or  two  by  some  persons  of 
rank  and  wealth  who  had  been  providentially  thwarted 
in  their  desire  to  embark  with  him,  had  inserted  in  his 
engagement  to  take  stock  in  the  Quinnipiac  company, 

*  Stiles'  History  of  the  Judges.  President  Stiles  had  been,  when  a 
boy,  personally  familiar  with  the  interior  of  the  Davenport  house. 


82  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

certain  stipulations  referring  to  these  friends  for  whom 
he  was  authorized  to  act.  The  nature  of  the  stipu- 
lations cannot  now  be  known ;  but,  whatever  they 
were,  Rogers,  who  did  not  come  to  Quinnipiac  with 
the  first  instalment  of  his  company,  became  convinced 
that  they  would  not  be  fulfilled  to  his  satisfaction, 
and  laid  the  matter  as  a  case  of  conscience  before  the 
Massachusetts  elders,  who  advised  him  that  he  was  re- 
leased from  his  engagement.  He  thereupon  decided 
to  remain  in  Massachusetts,  and  sent  a  pinnace  to 
bring  back  those  of  his  company  who  had  left  him  in 
October. 

Davenport  and  Eaton,  being  less  willing  than  the 
Massachusetts  elders  to  release  Rogers  from  his  en- 
gagement, detained  the  pinnace,  and  by  a  special  mes- 
senger despatched  letters  of  remonstrance  which  seem 
to  have  staggered  him,  till  the  elders  again  assembling 
and  examining  all  the  correspondence  between  the  par- 
ties, confirmed  their  former  judgment.  He  accordingly 
began  a  plantation  in  Massachusetts,  which  received 
the  name  of  Rowley,  from  the  place  where  he  had 
exefcised  his  ministry  in  the  mother-country.  But 
some  of  his  Yorkshire  friends,  who  had  gone  to  Quin- 
nipiac expecting  that  he  would  follow,  did  not  return 
in  the  pinnace  he  sent  for  them.  It  was  now  winter, 
and  perhaps  the  inclemency  of  the  season  disinclined 
them  to  leave  the  cellars  in  which  they  were  sheltered. 
Perhaps  the  storm  they  encountered  in  coming,  in- 
spired them  with  dread  of  the  sea.  Perhaps  they  were 
pleased  with  the  new  plantation,  admiring  its  leaders, 
enjoying  intercourse  with  its  people,  and  participating 
with  them  in  sanguine  expectation  of  its  future.     For 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC,  83 

some  reason  several  of  the  Yorkshire  families  re- 
mained, and  became  permanently  incorporated  in  the 
new  community. 

Rogers  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  years  mentions 
several  times,  in  letters  to  Gov.  Winthrop,  the  losses 
sustained  by  the  people  of  Rowley  in  cqnsequence  of 
coming  back  to  Massachusetts.  He  says,  "None  do 
know  (or  few)  what  we  are  impoverished  by  this  pur- 
chase, and  Quinnipiac,  and  the  failing  of  some  expected 
friends."  Again,  "I  suppose  you  hear  of  a  new  sad 
cross  from  Quinnipiac  in  Jo.  Hardy's  pinnace,  wherein 
may  be  much  of  my  estate  for  aught  I  know."  And 
still  later :  "  It  hath  been  a  trouble  of  late  to  my  poor 
neighbors  to  hear  of  this  "  (that  a  part  of  Rowley  was 
claimed  by  others)  **  after  their  purchase,  and  building, 
and  return  from  Quinnipiac."  These  hints  were  pre- 
paratory to  a  claim  v^hich  he  formally  made  in  the 
autumn  of  1640,  that  this  land  claimed  by  another  party 
as  previously  granted,  should  be  confirmed  to  Rowley. 
Appearing  before  the  court  over  which  Winthrop  was 
presiding,  he  "pleaded  justice,  upon  some  promises  of 
large  accommodations,  &c.,  when  we  desired  his  sitting 
down  with  us."  The  scene  that  ensued  when  the  re- 
quest was  refused  on  the  ground  that  the  land  had 
already  been  granted,  is  in  several  respects  instructive. 
The  elder  lost  his  temper,  and  by  that  means  gained  his 
cause  ;  for  the  court,  after  disciplining  him  for  contempt, 
"freely  granted  what  he  formerly  desired."  '• 

■  In  one  of  the  letters  from  Rogers  to  Winthrop  cited  above,  he  speaks 
of  one  of  the  New  Haven  planters  as  follows :  "  Sir :  Mr.  Lamberton  did 
OS  much  wrong.  I  expected  his  coming  to  the  Bay :  but  it  seems  he  sits 
down  at  Quinnipiac :  yet  he  hath  a  house  in  Boston :  I  would  humbly  crave 


84  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  next  event  after  the  arrival  of  the  Yorkshire 
company,  which  deserves  notice,  is  the  formal  purchase 
of  land  from  the  Indians.  The  terms  had  been  agreed 
upon  in  the  winter,  but  no  written  title  had  been  given, 
formalities  being  postponed  perhaps  till  a  more  com- 
petent interpreter  than  any  of  the  planters  could  be 
obtained.  Thomas  Stanton,  of  high  repute  for  knowl- 
edge of  the  Indian  tongue,  having  been  employed  to 
come  from  Hartford  and  explain  the  written  deed  to 
the  Indian  sachem  and  his  council,  it  was  signed  by 
them  on  the  24th  of  November.'  Its  full  text  is  as  fol- 
lows, with  the  exception  of  two  hiatuses  where  the 
record-book  has  been  torn :  — 

"  Articles  of  agreement  between  Theophilus  Eaton  and  John  Dav- 
enport and  others,  English  planters  at  Quinnipiac  on  the  one 
party,  and  Momaugin  the   Indian  Sachem  of  Quinnipiac  and 
Sugcogisin,  Quesaquaush,  Carroughood,  Wesaucuck  and  others 
of  his  council  on  the  other  party,  made  and  concluded  the  24th 
of  November  1638;  Thomas  Stanton  being  interpreter. 
"  That  he  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company  do  jointiy 
profess,  affirm  and  covenant  that  he  the  said  Momaugin  is  the  sole 
sachem  of  Quinnipiac,  and  hath  an  absolute  and  independent  power 
to  give,  alien,  dispose  or  sell,  all  or  any  part  of  the  lands  in  Quin- 
nipiac and  that  though  he  have  a  son  now  absent,  yet  neither  his 
said  son,  nor  any  other  person  whatsoever  hath  any  right,  tide  or 

your  advice  to  Mr.  Will  Bellingham  about  it,  whether  we  might  not  enter 
an  action  against  him  and  upon  proof  get  help  by  that  house."  This  evi- 
dently refers  to  Rogers*  disappointment  in  not  receiving  back  those  of  his 
flock  who  staid  in  New  Haven,  and  reads  as  if  Lamberton  were  to  be 
counted  among  them. 

*  In  "  New  Haven's  Case  Stated  **  it  is  claimed  that  Stanton,  at  the 
request  of  the  New  Haven  people,  was  sent  by  their  friends  in  Connecti- 
cut to  assist  in  this  purchase,  and  that  Connecticut  had  thus  consented 
to  the  transaction. 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  85 

interest  in  any  part  of  the  said  lands,  so  that  whatsoever  he,  the 
forenamed  sachem,  his  council  and  the  rest  of  the  Indians  present 
do  and  conclude,  shall  stand  firm  and  inviolable  against  all  claims 
and  persons  whatsoever. 

^  Secondly,  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company,  amongst 
which  there  was  a  squaw  sachem  called  Shaumpishuh,  sister  to  the 
sachem,  who  either  had  or  pretended  some  interest  in  some  part 
of  the  land,  remembering  and  acknowledging  the  heavy  taxes  and 
eminent  dangers  which  they  lately  felt  and  feared  from  the  Pequots, 
Mohawks,  and  other  Indians,  in  regard  of  which  they  durst  not  stay 
in  their  country,  but  were  forced  to  fly  and  to  seek  shelter  under 
the  English  at  Connecticut,  and  observing  the  safety  and  ease  that 
other  Indians  enjoy  near  the  English,  of  which  benefit  they  have 
had  a  comfortable  taste  already,  since  the  English  began  to  build 
and  plant  at  Quinnipiac,  which  with  all  thankfulness  they  now  ac- 
knowledged, they  jointly  and  freely  gave  and  yielded  up  all  their 
right,  title  and  interest  to  all  the  land,  rivers,  ponds,  and  trees  with 
all  the  liberties  and  appurtenances  belonging  unto  the  same  in 
Quinnipiac  to  the  utmost  of  their  bounds  east,  west,  north,  south, 
unto  Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Davenport  and  others,  the  present 
English  planters  there  and  to  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever,  desir- 
ing from  them  the  said  English  planters  to  receive  such  a  portion 
of  ground  on  the  East  side  of  the  harbor,  towards  the  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  of  Connecticut  as  might  be  sufficient  for  them, 
being  but  few  in  number,  to  plant  in ;  and  yet  within  these  limits  to 
be  hereafter  assigned  to  them,  they  did  covenant  and  freely  yield 
up  unto  the  said  English  all  the  meadow  ground  lying  therein,  with 
full  liberty  to  choose  and  cut  down  what  timber  they  please,  for  any 
use  whatsoever,  without  any  question,  license,  or  consent  to  be  asked 
from  them  the  said  Indians,  and  if,  after  their  portion  and  place  be 
limited  and  set  out  by  the  English  as  above,  they  the  said  Indians 
shall  desire  to  remove  to  any  other  place  within  Quinnipiac  bounds, 
but  without  the  limits  assigned  them,  that  they  do  it  not  without 
leave,  neither  setting  up  any  wigwam,  nor  breaking  up  any  ground 
to  plant  com,  till  first  it  be  set  out  and  appointed  by  the  forenamed 
English  planters  for  them. 

**  Thirdly,  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company,  desiring 
liberty  to  hunt  and  fish  within  the  bounds  of  Quinnipiac  now  given 


86  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

and  granted  to  the  English  as  before,  do  hereby  jointly  covenant 
and  bind  themselves  to  set  no  traps  near  any  place  where  the  .  .  . 
.  .  .  whether  horses,  oxen,  kine,  calves,  sheep,  goats,  hogs  or  any 

sort 

...  to  take  any  fish  out  of  any  wier  belonging  to  any  English, 
nor  to  do  any  thing  near  any  such  wier  as  to  disturb  or  affright 
away  any  fish  to  the  prejudice  of  such  wier  or  wiers,  and  that  upon 
discovery  of  any  inconveniency  growing  to  the  English  by  the 
Indians  disorderly  hunting,  their  hunting  shall  be  regulated  and 
limited  for  the  preventing  of  any  inconvenience  and  yet  with  as 
little  damage  to  the  Indians  in  their  hunting  as  may  be. 

"  Fourthly,  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company  do  hereby 
covenant  and  bind  themselves  that  none  of  them  shall  henceforth 
hanker  about  any  of  the  English  houses  at  any  time  when  the 
English  use  to  meet  about  the  public  worship  of  God ;  nor  on  the 
Lord's  day  henceforward  be  seen  within  the  compass  of  the  Eng- 
lish town,  bearing  any  burdens,  or  offering  to  truck  with  the  English 
for  any  commodity  whatsoever,  and  that  none  of  them  hencefor- 
ward without  leave,  open  any  latch  belonging  to  any  Englishman's 
door,  nor  stay  in  any  English  house  after  warning  that  he  should 
leave  the  same,  nor  do  any  violence,  wrong,  or  injury  to  the  person 
of  the  English,  whether  man,  woman  or  child,  upon  any  pretence 
whatsoever,  and  if  the  English  of  this  plantation,  by  themselves  or 
cattle,  do  any  wrong  or  damage  to  the  Indians,  upon  complaint, 
just  recompense  shall  be  made  by  the  English ;  and  that  none  of 
them  henceforward  use  or  take  any  Englishman's  boat  or  canoe  of 
what  kind  soever,  from  the  place  where  it  was  fastened  or  laid, 
without  leave  from  the  owner  first  had  and  obtained,  nor  that  they 
come  into  the  English  town  with  bows  and  arrows  or  any  other 
weapons  whatsoever  in  number  above  six  Indians  so  armed  at  a 
time. 

"  Fifthly,  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company  do  truly 
covenant  and  bind  themselves  that  if  any  of  them  shall  hereafter  kill 
or  hurt  any  English  cattle  of  what  sort  soever,  though  casually  or 
negligently,  they  shall  give  full  satisfaction  for  the  loss  or  damage 
as  the  English  shall  judge  equal :  but  if  any  of  them  for  any  respect, 
wilfully  do  kill  or  hurt  any  of  the  English  cattle ;  upon  proof,  they 
shall  pay  the  double  value :  and  if,  at  any  time,  any  of  them  find 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC,  8/ 

any  of  the  English  cattle  straying  or  lost  in  the  woods,  they  shall 
bring  them  back  to  the  English  plantation  and  a  moderate  price  or 
recompense  shall  be  allowed  for  their  pains ;  provided  if  it  can  be 
proved  that  any  of  them  drove  away  any  of  the  English  cattle 
wheresoever  they  find  them,  further  from  the  English  plantation  to 
make  an  increase  or  advantage  or  recompense  for  his  pains  finding 
or  bringing  them  back,  they  shall  in  any  such  case  pay  damages  for 
such  dealings. 

*'  Sixthly,  the  number  of  the  Quinnipiac  Indians,  men  or  youth 
grown  to  stature  fit  for  service,  being  forty-seven  at  present,  they 
do  covenant  and  bind  themselves  not  to  receive  or  admit  any  other 
Indians  amongst  them  without  leave  first  had  and  obtained  from 
the  English,  and  that  they  will  not,  at  any  time  hereafter,  entertain 
or  harbor  any  that  are  enemies  to  the  English,  but  will  presently 
apprehend  such  and  deliver  them  to  the  English,  and  if  they  know 
or  hear  of  any  plot  by  the  Indians  or  others  against  the  English, 
they  will  forthwith  discover  and  make  the  same  known  to  them, 
and  in  case  they  do  not,  to  be  accounted  as  parties  in  the  plot  and 
to  be  proceeded  against  as  such. 

"  Lastly,  the  said  sachem,  his  council,  and  company  do  hereby 
promise  truly  and  carefully  to  observe  and  keep  all  and  every  one 
of  these  articles  of  agreement ;  and  if  any  of  them  o£Fend  in  any 
of  the  promises,  they  jointly  hereby  subject  and  submit  such 
ofiEender  or  offenders  to  the  consideration,  censure,  and  punish- 
ment of  the  English  magistrate  or  officers  appointed  among  them 
for  government,  without  expecting  that  the  English  should  first 
advise  with  them  about  it :  yet  in  any  such  case  of  punishment,  if 
the  said  sachem  shall  desire  to  know  the  reason  and  equity  of  said 
proceedings,  he  shall  truly  be  informed  of  the  same. 

"  The  former  articles  being  read  and  interpreted  to  them,  they 
by  way  of  exposition  desired  that  in  the  sixth  article  it  might  be 
added,  that  if  any  of  the  English  cattle  be  killed  or  hurt  casually, 
or  negligently,  and  proof  made  it  was  done  by  some  of  the  Quinni- 
piac Indians,  they  will  make  satisfaction,  or  if  done  by  any  other 
Indians  in  their  sight,  if  they  do  not  discover  it  and,  if  able,  bring 
the  offender  to  the  English,  they  will  be  accounted  and  dealt  with 
as  guilty. 

<«  In  consideration  of  all  which,  they  desire  from  the  English,  that, 


88  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

if  at  any  time  hereafter  they  be  a£Erighted  in  their  dwellings  assigned 
by  the  English  unto  them  as  before,  they  may  repair  to  the  English 
plantation  for  shelter  and  that  the  English  will  then  in  a  just  cause 
endeavor  to  defend  them  from  wrong.  But  in  any  quarrel  or  wars 
which  they  shall  undertake  or  have  with  other  Indians,  upon  any 
occasion  whatsoever,  they  will  manage  their  afEairs  by  themselves 
without  expecting  any  aid  from  the  English. 

**  And  the  English  planters  before  mentioned  accepting  and  grant- 
ing according  to  the  tenor  of  the  premises  do  further  of  their  own 
accord,  by  way  of  free  and  thankful  retribution,  give  unto  the  said 
sachem,  council,  and  company  of  the  Quinnipiac  Indians,  twelve 
coats  of  English  trucking  cloth,  twelve  alchemy  spoons,  twelve 
hatchets,  twelve  hoes,  two  dozen  of  knives,  twelve  porringers,  and 
four  cases  of  French  knives  and  scissors.  All  which  being  thank- 
fully accepted  by  the  aforesaid  and  the  agreements  in  all  points 
perfected,  for  ratification  and  full  confirmation  of  the  same,  the 
sachem,  his  council,  and  sister,  to  these  presents  have  set  to  their 
hands  or  marks  the  day  and  year  above  written. 


MOMAUGlN    J^^  ^^^  his  mark 


SuGCOGisiN  l(  ^'  liis  mark 


QUESAQUAUSH  '  ^'^  ™^^ 


^  ^_  -^^  his  mark 

Carroughood 


Weesaucuck  #     his  mark 

Shaumiishuh  -^^  ^     her 

mark" 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC,  80 

**  I,  Thomas  Stanton,  being  interpreter  in  this  treaty,  do  hereby 
profess  in  the  presence  of  God  that  I  have  fully  acquainted  the 
Indians  with  the  substance  of  every  article  and  truly  returned  their 
answer  and  consent  to  the  same,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  fore- 
going writing,  the  truth  of  which,  if  lawfully  called,  I  shall  readily 

confirm  by  my  oath  at  any  time. 

Thomas  Stanton." 

On  the  nth  of  December,  Montowese,  sachem  of 
another  tribe,  "in  presence  and  with  allowance  and 
consent  of  Sauseunck,  an  Indian  who  came  in  company 
with  him,**  sold  to  the  English  a  tract  of  land  lying 
north  of  that  sold  by  Momaugin,  and  described  as  "  ex- 
tending about  ten  miles  in  length  from  north  to  south, 
eight  miles  easterly  from  the  river  of  Quinnipiac  to- 
ward the  river  of  Connecticut  and  five  miles  westerly 
toward  Hudson's  river.**  Montowese,  reserving  a 
piece  of  land  near  the  village  which  now  bears  his 
name,  "  for  his  men  which  are  ten,  and  many  squaws,  to 
plant  in,**  received  "  eleven  coats  of  trucking  cloth,  and 
one  coat  of  English  cloth  made  up  after  the  English 
manner,**  in  payment  for  the  territory  thus  alienated. 

The  attesting  marks  of  Montowese  and  Sawseunck 
are  as  follows  :  — 


**  Montowese  ^'"^^T'^     his  mark 


Sawseunck         I     his  mark" 


go  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

At  the  present  day  we  are  apt  to  think  that  these 
sachems  sold  their  land  for  a  ridiculously  small  price ; 
but  one  who  attentively  considers  all  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  the  reservations  they  made,  the  protection 
they  secured,  and  the  opportunity  for  trade  afforded 
by  the  English  settlement,  will  perhaps  conclude  that 
what  they  received  was  of  greater  value  to  them  than 
what  they  sold.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  Indians 
were  afterward  dissatisfied  with  the  terms  of  sale. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  excitement  among  the 
Yorkshire  peopFe  about  returning  to  Massachusetts, 
there  was  conference  among  those  who  had  come  with 
Prudden  from  Hereford,  tending  toward  a  removal  from 
Quinnipiac  to  a  separate  plantation,  in  which  they 
might  enjoy  his  ministry.  What  the  understanding  had 
been  between  his  Herefordshire  flock  and  the  London 
men  in  reference  to  a  church  and  church-officers  at 
Quinnipiac,  it  is  impossible  to  determine  with  cer- 
tainty ;  but,  as  the  latter  party  had  brought  with  them 
two  ministers  in  whom  they  were  interested,  we  may 
conjecture  that  if  they  encouraged  the  Hereford  men  to 
believe  that  Prudden  should  be  their  minister,  they  did 
so  in  expectation  that  he  would  be  united  with  Daven- 
port and  Samuel  Eaton  in  the  eldership  of  the  church. 

Trumbull  relates  that  Prudden  preached  at  Wethers- 
field  during  the  summer  of  1638 ;  and,  as  a  part  of  the 
first  planters  of  MUford  came  from  Wethersfield  on 
account  of  their  regard  for  him  and  some  disagree- 
ment in  their  church,  it  is  probable  that  the  project  of 
a  settlement  at  Milford  grew  out  of  Prudden's  visit  to 
Wethersfield.     Ascertaining  that  by  uniting  his  friends 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  AT  QUINNIPIAC.  9 1 

in  Wethersfield  with  those  who  had  followed  him  across 
the  sea,  he  could  become  the  minister  of  a  new  planta- 
tion, and  stand  foremost  if  not  alone  in  the  eldership  of 
its  church,  he  naturally  preferred  such  a  position  to  that 
of  a  colleagueship  with  Davenport. 

Prudden's  friends  having  determined  to  commence  a 
new  plantation  at  Wepowaug,  land  was  formally  con- 
veyed to  them  by  a  written  deed  subscribed  by  Ansan- 
taway  the  sachem  of  the  place  and  by  his  council,  Feb. 
12,  1639.  Lambert  relates  that  "a  twig  and  a  piece  of 
turf  being  brought  to  the  sagamore,  he  placed  the  end 
of  the  branch  in  the  clod,  and  then  gave  it  to  the  Eng- 
lish as  a  token  that  he  thereby  surrendered  to  them  the 
soil,  with  all  the  trees  and  appurtenances.*'  But,  though 
the  land  was  bought  in  February,  the  projected  planta- 
tion was  not  commenced  till  autumn,  so  that  those  who 
intended  to  remove  from  Quinnipiac  remained  in  their 
houses  through  the  summer,  and  cultivated  their  fields 
as  they  had  done  the  previous  year. 

We  find  nothing  more  on  record  concerning  the  first 
winter  at  Quinnipiac,  except  that  two  vessels,  bound 
thither  from  Boston,  were  cast  away  in  December, 
there  being,  says  Winthrop,  "so  great  a  tempest  of 
wind  and  snow,  all  the  night  and  the  next  day,  as  had 
not  been  since  our  time."  We  may  conjecture  that 
the  work  of  removal  was  not  yet  entirely  accomplished, 
—  that  some  who  had  come  from  Massachusetts  in  the 
preceding  spring,  and  had  spent  the  summer  and  au- 
tumn in  the  erection  of  houses,  wqre  npw  transporting 
to  their  new  homes  comforts  for  which  there  had  been 
no  place  in  their  summer  habitations. 


i 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FOUNDATIONS   LAID   IN   CHURCH   AND   STATE. 

THE  spring  of  1639  found  the  plantation  at  Quin- 
nipiac  no  farther  advanced  in  its  ecclesiastical  or 
its  civil  organization  than  on  the  morrow  after  its  "  first 
day  of  extraordinary  humiliation."  Its  public  property 
was  still  managed  by  the  members,  or  in  ordinary  cases, 
by  the  officers,  of  the  joint-stock  association.  Civil 
government  was  administered,  if  at  all,  by  a  democ- 
racy acknowledging  rto  authority  but  that  of  God,  and 
no  constitution  but  God*s  word  as  contained  in  the 
Scriptures.  Public  worship  was  regularly  offered,  but 
no  church  had  been  instituted  and  no  sacraments 
had  been  celebrated. 

Several  reasons  may  be  suggested  for  the  slowness 
with  which  the  planters  came  to  the  work  of  organi- 
zation. They  had  much  to  occupy  their  minds  and 
hands  during  the  first  summer,  in  providing  for  the  ap- 
proaching winter.  During  the  winter  the  Yorkshire 
people  were  exercised  in  mind  with  the  question, 
whether  they  should  remain,  or  go  back  to  Massachu- 
setts, and,  till  this  question  was  decided,  were  not  ready 
to  unite  with  any  church.  The  leading  men  in  the 
plantation  would  naturally  prefer  to  wait  for  their  de- 
cision, rather  than  to  proceed  immediately  with  an 
92 


FOUND  A  TIONS  LAID  IN  CHURCH  AND  STA  TE,      93 

organization  which  did  not  include  so  desirable  an 
addition. 

The  Hereford  men  began  in  the  autumn,  and  perhaps 
late  in  the  summer,  to  think  of  removing,  and  by  mid- 
winter had  purchased  lahd  at  Milford,  and  thus  were 
fully  committed.  So  long  as  they  were  hesitating,  their 
brethren  would  wait  for  their  decision  as  they  had  done 
for  that  of  the  Yorkshire  people,  though  with  a  different 
feeling  toward  their  proposal  to  remove.  There  is  no 
reason  to  believe  that  the  people  of  Quinnipiac -were 
unwilling  that  a  new  plantation  should  be  established  a 
few  miles  west  of  their  own ;  for^  if  their  population 
should  be  thereby  somewhat  diminished,  those  who  re- 
moved would  still  be  near  them,  and  would  draw  to  the 
neighborhood  a  considerable  accession  of  planters.  So 
far  as  appears,  Prudden  and  Davenport  were  as  much  at 
one  in  their  plans  after  the  former  had  decided  to  estab- 
lish a  new  plantation,  as  before. 

We  may  find  another  reason  for  the  slowness  with 
which  the  planters  came  to  the  work  of  laying  founda- 
tions of  Church  and  State,  in  the  difference  of  opinion 
which  prevailed  among  them  in  regard  to  such  founda- 
tions. Some  had  been  non-conforming  members  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  others  had  separated  themselves 
from  the  national  church  while  still  residing  in  the 
mother-country.  In  other  words,  there  were  in  the 
colony  both  Puritans  and  Separatists.  But,  so  far  as 
concerns  church  organization,  these  two  classes  were 
practically  agreed.  As  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts 
felt  themselves  obliged  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Separatists  at  Plymouth  in  organizing  their  churches, 
80  at  Quinnipiac  those  who  had  never  yet  belonged  to 


94  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

a  Congregational  church  saw  that  such  a  church  was  the 
only  ecclesiastical  organization  possible  to  them  in  their 
circumstances.  There  was  a  difference  of  opinion,  how- 
ever, in  the  colony,  on  the  question  whether  civil  author- 
ity should  be  confined  to  men  who  were  in  communion 
with  the  church ;  and  this  difference  was  to  a  great  ex- 
tent coincident  with  the  division  into  the  two  classes  of 
Puritans  and  Separatists.  The  Puritan  planters  of  Mas- 
sachusetts relinquished  episcopacy  because  they  did  not 
see  their  way  clear  to  retain  it ;  but  they  would  not  relin- 
quish the  old  English  idea  that  the  State  should  be  gov- 
erned by  Christians  only,  and  that  the  Christian  charac- 
ter thus  required  should  be  certified  by  the  Church. 
Following  the  Separatists  at  Plymouth  in  organizing 
their  churches,  they  would  not  follow  them  in  admitting 
to  the  elective  franchise  planters  who  were  not  church-  * 
members.  The  English  idea  long  prevailed  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  but  the  Plymouth  or  Separatist  belief  that 
church-membership  is  not  an  essential  qualification  of 
free  burgesses  gradually  gained  adherents.  When  the 
river-towns  in  Connecticut  were  planted  by  emigrants 
from  Massachusetts,  so  much  progress  had  been  made 
from  the  Puritan  toward  the  Separatist  theory,  that 
church-membership  was  never  required  in  the  colony 
of  Connecticut  as  a  qualification  for  the  elective  fran- 
chise. 

There  being  in  the  colony  at  Quinnipiac  some  who 
belonged  to  Congregational  churches,  and  some  who 
had  never  separated  from  the  Church  of  England,  there 
was  a  tendency  in  these  two  classes  to  divide  on  the 
question  whether  civil  authority  should  be  confined  to 
members  of  the  church.    The  Separatists  desired  to  lay 


FOUND  A  TIONS  LAID  IN  CHURCH  AND  STA  TE.      95 

the  foundations  of  both  Church  and  State  in  accordance 
with  the  Plymouth  model.  Their  leader,  Samuel  Eaton, 
stood  up  for  the  principle  that  all  free  planters,  that  is, 
proprietors  in  the  plantation,  however  they  might  dele- 
gate authority,  should  have  power  to  resume  it  into 
their  own  hands.  But  Davenport,  who  had  never  been 
a  Separatist,  and  would  have  been  content  to  remain  in 
the  Establishment  if  only  his  party  had  been  in  the 
ascendant,  stoutly  defended  with  Scriptural  arguments 
the  position  that  the  power  of  choosing  magistrates,  of 
making  and  repealing  laws,  of  dividing  inheritances,  and 
of  deciding  differences,  should  be  vested  in  church- 
members.  In  the  course  of  the  debate  between  them 
Davenport  wrote  a  treatise,  afterward  printed  and  still 
extant,  entitled,  "  A  Discourse  about  Civil  Government 
in  a  New  Plantation  whose  Design  is  Religion."  Ulti- 
mately the  views  of  Davenport  prevailed  over  all  op- 
position, but  not  till  a  long  time  had  been  consumed  in 
the  discussion. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  June,  1639,  ^  nieeting  of  all  the 
proprietors,  or  free  planters  as  they  were  called,  was 
held  in  the  barn  of  Mr.  Robert  Newman,  "to  consult 
about  settling  civil  government  according  to  God,  and 
about  the  nomination  of  persons  that  might  be  found 
by  consent  of  all,  fittest  in  all  respects  for  the  founda- 
tion work  of  a  church."  In  reporting  this  meeting  we 
shall  chiefly  use  the  language 'of  the  contemporary 
record :  — 

**  For  the  better  enabling  them  to  discern  the  mind  of  God  and 
to  agree  accordingly  concerning  the  establishment  of  civil  order, 
Mr.  John  Davenport  propounded  divers  queries  to  ihem,  publicly 
praying  them  to  consider  seriously  in  the  presence  and  fear  of  God 


96  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

the  weight  of  the  business  they  met  about,  and  not  to  be  rash  or 
slight  in  giving  their  votes  to  things  they  understood  not,  but  to 
digest  fully  and  thoroughly  what  should  be  propounded  to  them, 
and  without  respect  to  men,  as  they  should  be  satisfied  and  per- 
suaded in  their  own  minds,  to  give  their  answers  in  such  sort  as 
they  would  be  willing  they  should  stand  upon  record  for  posterity." 

At  the  earnest  request  of  Mr.  Davenport,  — 

'*  Mr.  Robert  Newman  was  entreated  to  write  in  characters  and 
to  read  distinctly  and  audibly  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people  what 
was  propounded  and  accorded  on,  that  it  might  appear  that  all 
consented  to  matters  propounded,  according  to  words  written  by 
him." 

Mr.  Davenport  then  proposed  his  queries  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"Query  i.  —  Whether  the  Scriptures  do  hold  forth  a  perfect 
rule  for  the  direction  and  government  of  all  men  in  all  duties  which 
they  are  to  perform  to  Go^  and  men  as  well  in  the  government  of 
families  and  commonwealths  as  in  matters  of  the  church. 

''  This  was  assented  unto  by  all,  no  man  dissenting,  as  was  ex- 
pressed by  holding  up  of  hands.  Afterward  it  was  read  over  to 
them  that  they  might  see  in  what  words  their  vote  was  expressed. 
They  again  expressed  their  consent  thereto  by  holding  up  their 
hands,  no  man  dissenting. 

"  Query  2.  —  Whereas  there  was  a  covenant  solemnly  made  by 
the  whole  assembly  of  free  planters  of  this  plantation  the  first  day 
of  extraordinary  humiliation  which  we  had  after  we  came  together, 
that  as  in  matters  that  concern  the  gathering  and  ordering  of  a 
church,  so  likewise  in  all  public  oflSces  which  concern  civil  order, 
as  choice  of  magistrates  and  officers,  making  and  repealing  of  laws, 
dividing  allotments  of  inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,  we 
would  all  of  us  be  ordered  by  those  rules  which  the  Scripture  holds 
forth  to  us  (this  covenant  was  called  a  plantation  covenant  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  a  church  covenant  which  could  not  at  that  time  be 
made,  a  church  not  being  then  gathered,  but  was  deferred  till  a 
church  might  be  gathered  according  to  God);  it  was  demanded 


FOUNDATIONS  LAID  IN  CHURCH  AND  STATE,      97 

whether  all  the  free  planters  do  hold  themselves  bound  by  that 
covenant  in  all  business  of  that  nature  which  are  expressed  in  the 
covenant  to  submit  themselves  to  be  ordered  by  the  rules  held  forth 
in  the  Scripture. 

*^  This  also  was  assented  to  by  all,  and  no  man  gainsaid  it,  and 
they  did  testify  the  same  by  holding  up  their  hands,  both  when  it 
was  first  propounded,  and  confirmed  the  same  by  holding  up  their 
hands  when  it  was  read  unto  them  in  public.  John  Clarke,  being 
absent  when  the  covenant  was  made,  doth  now  manifest  his  con- 
sent to  it :  also  Richard  Beach,  Andrew  Low,  Goodman  Banister, 
Arthur  Halbidge,  John  Potter,  Robert  Hill,  John  Brockett,  and 
John  Johnson,  being  not  admitted  planters  when  the  covenant  was 
made,  do  now  express  their  consent  to  it. 

"  Query  3.  —  Those  who  have  been  received  as  free  planters 
and  are  settled  in  the  plantation  with  a  purpose,  resolution  and 
desire  that  they  may  be  admitted  into  church  fellowship  according 
to  Christ  as  soon  as  God  shall  fit  them  thereunto,  were  desired  to 
express  it  by  holding  up  of  hands :  accordingly  all  did  express  this 
to  be  their  desire  and  purpose  by  holding  up  their  hands  twice,  viz., 
both  at  the  proposal  of  it,  and  after  when  these  written  words  were 
read  unto  them." 


The  response  to  this  question  is  instructive,  as  it 
shows  that  all  the  proprietors  were  earnestly  religious 
men,  were  desirous  of  being  admitted  to  the  communion 
of  the  church,  and,  if  they  had  not  already  become  con- 
scious of  spiritual  enlightenment  wrought  in  them  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  were  hoping  for  such  an  experience 
to  qualify  them  for  such  admission.  The  "purpose, 
resolution,  and  desire  "  to  be  admitted  into  church-fel- 
lowship thus  unanimously  declared,  prepare  us  to  learn 
with  less  astonishment  that  in  response  to  the  fifth 
query,  to  which  those  that  preceded  logically  conducted, 
they  voted  to  confine  the  elective  franchise  to  church- 
members. 


98  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

"  Query  4.  —  All  the  free  planters  were  called  upon  to  express 
whether  they  held  themselves  bound  to  establish  such  civil  order 
as  might  best  conduce  to  the  securing  of  the  purity  and  peace  of 
the  ordinances  to  themselves  and  their  posterity  according  to  God. 
In  answer  hereunto  they  expressed  by  holding  up  their  hands  twice 
as  before,  that  they  held  themselves  bound  to  establish  such  as 
might  best  conduce  to  the  ends  aforesaid." 

After  some  remarks  by  Mr.  Davenport,  the  fifth  query 
was  propounded  as  follows  :  — 

"Query  5.  —  Whether  free  burgesses  shall  be  chosen  out  of 
church  members,  they  that  are  in  the  foundation  work  of  the  church 
being  actually  free  burgesses  and  to  choose  to  themselves  out  of 
the  like  estate  of  church  fellowship :  and  the  power  of  choosing 
magistrates  and  officers  from  among  themselves,  and  the  power  of 
making  and  repealing  laws  according  to  the  word,  and  the  dividing 
of  inheritances,  and  deciding  of  difEerences  that  may  arise,  and  all 
the  businesses  of  like  nature  are  to  be  transacted  by  those  free  bur- 
gesses. 

"This  was  put  to  vote  and  agreed  unto  by  the  lifting  up  of 
hands  twice  as  in  the  former  it  was  done.  Then  one  man  stood  up 
after  the  vote  was  past,  expressing  his  dissent  from  the  rest  in  part, 
yet  granting  ist,  That  magistrates  should  be  men  fearing  God; 
2d,  That  the  church  is  the  company  whence  ordinarily  such  men 
may  be  expected;  3d,  That  they  that  choose  them  ought  to  be 
men  fearing  God :  only  at  this  he  stuck  that  free  planters  ought 
not  to  give  this  power  out  of  their  hands.  Another  stood  up  and 
answered  that  in  this  case  nothing  was  done  but  with  their  consent. 
The  former  answered  that  all  the  free  planters  ought  to  resume 
this  power  into  their  own  hands  again  if  things  were  not  orderly 
carried.  Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton  answered  that  in  all  places  they 
choose  committees;  in  like  manner  the  companies  of  London 
choose  the  liveries  by  whom  the  public  magistrates  are  chosen. 
In  this  the  rest  are  not  wronged,  because  they  expect  in  time  to 
be  of  the  liver)'  themselves  and  to  have  the  same  power.  Some 
others  entreated  the  former  to  give  his  arguments  and  reasons 
whereupon  he  dissented.     He  refused  to  do  it,  and  said  th(^y  might 


FOUNDATIONS  LAID  IN  CHURCH  AND  STATE,      99 

not  rationally  demand  it,  seeing  he  let  the  vote  pass  on  freely  and 
did  not  speak  till  after  it  was  past,  because  he  would  not  hinder 
what  they  agreed  upon.  Then  Mr.  Davenport,  after  a  short  rela- 
tion of  some  former  passages  between  them  two  *  about  this  ques- 
tion, prayed  the  company  that  nothing  might  be  concluded  by  them 
in  this  mighty  question  but  what  themselves  were  persuaded  to  be 
agreeing  with  the  mind  of  God,  and  [as]  they  had  heard  what  had 
been  said  since  the  voting,  entreated  them  again  to  consider  of  it 
and  put  it  again  to  vote  as  before." 

The  assembly  having  again  unanimously  assented, 
and  some  who  had  previously  leaned  to  the  opposite 
side,  or  halted  between  the  two  opinions,  having  given 
vocal  expression  to  their  confidence  that  the  action 
taken  was  "according  to  the  mind  of  God  revealed  in 
the  Scriptures:  —  *' 

"  Mr.  Robert  Newman  was  desired  to  write  it  as  an  order,  where- 
unto  every  one  that  hereafter  should  be  admitted  here  as  planters 
should  submit  and  testify  the  same  by  subscribing  their  names  to  the 
order,  namely,  that  church-members  only  shall  be  free  burgesses, 
and  that  they  only  shall  choose  magistrates  and  officers  among 
themselves." 

The  elective  franchise  being  thus  limited  to  church- 
members,  the  assembly  proceeded  to  consider  and  de- 
termine what  method  they  should  pursue  in  organizing 
their  church :  — 

"  Mr.  Davenport  advised  that  the  names  of  such  as  were  to  be 
admitted  might  be  publicly  propounded,  to  the  end  that  they  who 

'  Although  the  name  of  the  "  one  man  "  who  dissented  is  not  given  in 
the  record,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  Samuel  Eaton.  Mather 
records  the  tradition  that  it  was  he ;  and  the  treatise  of  Davenport  bears 
internal  evidence  that  it  was  addressed  to  one  of  his  clerical  friends  in  the 
plantation,  that  is  to  Eaton  or  Prudden.  Hut  Prudden  could  not  have 
been  the  dissentient  speaker  to  the  assembly  in  Mr.  Newman's  barn;  for 
he  and  his  company,  having  resolved  to  remove,  took  no  part  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  civil  order  in  Qwnnipiac. 


lOO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

were  most  approved  might  be  chosen ;  for  the  town  being  cast  into 
several  private  meetings,  wherein  they  that  dwelt  nearest  together 
gave  their  accounts  one  to  another  of  God*s  gracious  work  upon 
them,  and  prayed  together  and  conferred  to  their  mutual  edifica- 
tion, sundry  of  them  had  knowledge  one  of  another,  and  in  every 
meeting  some  one  was  more  approved  of  all  than  any  dther.  For 
this  reason  and  to  avoid  scandals,  the  whole  company  was  entreated 
to  consider  whom  they  found  fittest  to  nominate  for  this  work." 

The  sixth  query  was  then  read  in  these  words,  viz. :  — 

"  Whether  are  you  all  willing  and  do  agree  in  this,  that  twelve 
men  be  chosen  that  their  fitness  for  the  foundation  work  may  be 
tried ;  however  there  may  be  more  named,  yet  it  may  be  in  their 
power  who  are  chosen  to  reduce  them  to  twelve,  and  it  be  in  the 
power  of  those  twelve  to  choose  out  of  themselves  seven  that  shall 
be  most  approved  of  the  major  part  to  begin  the  church. 

'*  This  was  agreed  upon  by  consent  of  all,  as  was  expressed  by 
holding  up  of  hands,  and  that  so  many  as  should  be  thought  fit  for 
the  foundation  work  of  the  church  shall  be  propounded  by  the 
plantation  and  written  down  and  pass  without  exception  unless 
they  had  given  public  scandal  or  ofEence ;  yet  so  as  in  case  of  pub- 
lic scandal  or  offence,  every  one  should  have  liberty  to  propound 
their  exceptions  at  that  time  publicly  against  any  man  that  should 
be  nominated  when  all  their  names  should  be  written  down ;  but  if 
the  offence  were  private,  that  men's  names  might  be  tendered,  so 
many  as  were  offended  were  entreated  to  deal  with  the  offender 
privately,  and  if  he  gave  not  satisfaction,  to  bring  the  matter  to  the 
twelve  that  they  might  consider  of  it  impartially  and  in  the  fear  of 
God.  The  names  of  the  persons  nominated  arid  agreed  upon  were 
Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton,  Mr.  John  Davenport,  Mr.  Robert  Newman, 
Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  Mr.  Richard  Malbon,  Mr.  Nathanael Turner, 
Ezekiel  Cheever,  Thomas  Fugill,  John  Punderson,  William  Andrews 
and  Jeremiah  Dixon.*  No  exception  was  brought  against  any  of 
those  in  public,  except  one  about  taking  an  excessive  rate  for  meal 

*  The  registrar  omitted  one  of  the  twelve  names.  Was  the  name  ot 
the  penitent  extortioner  designedly  dropped,  or  was  the  omission  acci- 
dental? 


FOUNDATIONS  LAID  IN  CHURCH  AND  STATE,     lOI 

which  he  sold  to  one  of  Pequonock  in  his  need,  which  he  confessed 
with  grief,  and  declared  that  having  been  smitten  in  heart  and 
troubled  in  his  conscience,  he  restored  such  a  part  of  the  price 
back  again  with  confession  of  his  sin  to  the  party  as  he  thought  him- 
self bound  to  do.  And  it  being  feared  that  the  report  of  the  sin  was 
heard  farther  than  the  report  of  his  satisfaction,  a  course  was  con- 
cluded on  to  make  the  satisfaction  known  to  as  many  as  heard  of 
the  sin.  It  was  also  agreed  upon  at  the  said  meeting  that  if  the 
persons  above  named  did  find  themselv£s  straitened  in  the  number 
of  fit  men  for  the  seven,  that  it  should  be  free  for  them  to  take  into 
trial  of  fitness  such  other  as  they  should  think  meet,  provided  that 
it  should  be  signified  to  the  town,  upon  the  Lord's  day,  whom  they 
so  take  in,  that  every  man  may  be  satisfied  of  them  according  to  ^ 
the  course  formerly  taken." 

In  due  time  the  twelve  thus  appointed  chose  out  of 
their  own  number  the  following  seven,  as  "most  ap- 
proved of  the  major  part,  to  begin  the  church,"  namely, 
Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Davenport,  Robert  Newman, 
Matthew  Gilbert,  Thomas  Fugill,  John  Punderson,  and 
Jeremiah  Dixon.  "  By  these  seven  persons,  covenant- 
ing together,  and  then  receiving  others  into  their  fel- 
lowship, the  first  church  of  Christ  in  New  Haven  was 
gathered  and  constituted  on  the  22d  of  August,  1639."  ^ 

On  the  25th  of  October  these  seven  proceeded  to 
organize  themselves  as  a  civil  court,  proceeding  as 
follows,  "  after  solemn  prayer  unto  God  : "  — 

"  First :  All  former  power  or  trust  for  managing  any  public  affairs 
in  this  plantation,  into  whose  hands  soever  formerly  committed,  was 
now  abrogated  and  from  henceforward  utterly  to  cease. 

*  Bacon's  Hist.  Dis.,  p.  24.  Dr.  Bacon  ascertains  the  date  from  the 
records  of  the  First  Church  in  Milford,  which  was  gathered  in  New 
Haven,  where  its  members  still  resided,  and,  as  the  local  tradition  says, 
on  the  same  day  with  the  New  Haven  church.  Mather  (Mag.,  Book  HI., 
ch.  6)  records  the  tradition  somewhat  differently,  giving  to  each  church 
one  of  two  consecutive  days  employed  in  the  formalities  of  institution. 


I02  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"  Secondly :  All  those  that  have  been  received  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  this  church  since  the  gathering  of  it,  or  who,  being  members 
of  other  approved  churches,  offered  themselves,  were  admitted  as 
members  of  this  court:  namely,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Turner,  William 
Andrews  and  Mr.  Cheever,  members  of  this  church ;  Mr.  Samuel 
Eaton,  John  Clark,  Lieutenant  Seeley,  John  Chapman,  Thomas 
Jeffrey,  and  Richard  Hull,  members  of  other  approved  churches." 

The  court  then  proceeded  to  choose  Theophilus 
Eaton  "magistrate  for  the  term  of  one  whole  year;" 
and  Robert  Newman,  Matthew  Gilbert,  Nathanael 
Turner,  and  Thomas  Fugill,  "deputies  to  assist  the 
magistrate  in  all  courts  called  by  him  for  the  occa- 
sions of  the  plantation  for  the  same  term  of  one  whole 
year." 

Thomas  Fugill  was  chosen  clerk,  and  Robert  Seeley 
marshal. 

'Mt  was  further  agreed  that  there  should  be  a  renewing  of  the 
choice  of  all  officers  every  year  at  a  general  court  to  be  held  for 
this  plantation  the  last  week  in  October  yearly ;  and  that  the  word 
of  God  shall  be  the  only  rule  to  be  attended  unto  in  ordering  the 
affairs  of  government  in  this  plantation." 

The  formal  institution  of  civil  authority  may  have 
been  hastened  by  foresight  of  an  event  which  imme- 
diately followed ;  for,  the  next  day  after  the  magistrate 
had  been  clothed  with  power,  an  Indian  named  Nepau- 
puck  was  brought  before  him  upon  his  warrant,  charged 
with  the  murder  of  an  Englishman  at  Wethersfield.  A 
few  days  afterward  a  general  court  was  assembled,  and 
the  prisoner  was  brought  before  it  for  trial.  Being  found 
guilty  upon  evidence  so  clear  that  he  confessed  his  guilt, 
he  was  condemned  to  death.  "Accordingly  his  head 
was  cut  off  the  next  day,  and  pitched  upon  a  pole  in  the 
market-place." 


17 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DIVISION     OF     LAND. 

WE  have  already  seen  that  immediately  after  the 
town-plot  was  laid  out,  a  house-lot  was  assigned 
to  every  free  planter ;  by  which  appellation  a  person 
who  had  invested  in  the  common  property  of  the  plan- 
tation was  distinguished  from  other  inhabitants.  These 
house-lots  were  so  large  as  to  require,  in  most  cases,  all 
the  labor  their  owners  could  give  to  husbandry  during 
the  first  two  summers.  The  few  who  needed  more  land 
for  cultivation  were  allowed  to  plant  in  *'  the  neck  "  be- 
tween Mill  River  and  Quihnipiac  River.  So  desirable 
did  the  proprietors  regard  the  increase  of  population, 
that  they  not  only  made  the  quantity  of  land  thus  as- 
signed to  a  free  planter  to  depend  partly  on  the  num- 
ber of  persons  in  his  family,  but  also  freely  assigned  a 
small  lot  on  the  outside  of  the  town-plot  to  every  house- 
holder in  the  plantation  who  desired  to  become  a  perma- 
nent resident,  but  was  unable  to  purchase  a  share  in  the 
common  property.  The  number  of  householders  thus 
gratuitously  supplied  with  house-lots  was  in  the  begin- 
ning thirty-two.     Others  were  afterward  added. 

In  January,  1640,  arrangements  were  made  for  the 
division   of  the   neck,  the   salt   meadows,  and  a  tract 

which,  extending  in  every  direction  about  a  mile  from 

103 


I04  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

the  town,  was  called  the  two-miles-square.  The  divis- 
ion was  so  arranged  that  every  free  planter  should 
have  some  land  in  the  neck,  some  in  the  meadows,  and 
some  in  the  upland  of  the  two-miles-square. 

Out  of  the  last-mentioned  tract  certain  reservations 
were  made ;  and  the  remainder  was  divided  into  nine 
parts,  one  for  each  of  the  nine  quarters  into  which  the 
town  was  divided,  each  quarter  in  the  town  having  its 
out-lands  as  nearly  as  possible  contiguous  to  itself.  In 
consequence  of  this  arrangement,  these  sections  of  out- 
lands  were  also  called  quarters  ;  and,  there  being  more 
occasion  for  using  the  term  in  connection  with  the 
out-lands  than  the  home-lots,  it  came  by  degrees  to  be 
applied  almost  exclusively  to  them  in  later  records. 

Commencing  with  the  east-centre,  or  Mr.  Davenport's 
quarter,  let  us  connect  the  nine  quarters  with  out-lands 
assigned  to  them  respectively  in  the  first  division.  The 
out-lands  of  Mr.  Davenport's  quarter  were  bounded  by 
Chapel  Street,  Grand  Street,  a  line  about  three  hundred 
feet  east  of  State  Street,  and  Mill  River.  Mr.  Eaton's 
quarter  was  bounded  by  Grand  Street,  State  Street  (or, 
as  it  was  called,  Neck  Lane),  a  line  in  continuation  of 
that  just  mentioned,  described  as  three  hundred  feet  east 
of  State  Street,  and  the  meadows  bordering  on  Mill 
River.  Mr.  Newman's  quarter  was  bounded  by  Neck 
Lane,  Mill  Lane  (as  Orange  Street  was  called).  Grove 
Street,  and  the  meadows  bordering  on  Mill  River.  Mr. 
Tench's  quarter,  lying  between  Mill  Lane  and  Prospect 
Street,  extended  outward  from  Grove  Street  so  far  as 
was  necessary  to  furnish  every  planter  in  the  quarter 
with  his  proportionate  allotment. 

It  will  be  seen,  that,  while  Mr.  Davenport's  quarter 


DIVISION  OF  LAND,  I  OS 

had  their  out-lands  near  their  home-lots,  Mr.  Tench's 
out-land  quarter  only  touched  his  town  quarter,  and  that, 
if  the  out-lands  of  the  next  quarter  had  been  assigned 
so  as  to  be  contiguous  to  those  of  Mr.  Tench's  quarter, 
they  would  have  been  far  distant  from  the  home-lots  to 
which  they  belonged.  This  difficulty  was  solved  by  the 
sequestration  of  land  lying  west  of  Prospect  Street,  for 
common  use.  This  tract  included  the  cow-pasture,  the 
ox-pasture,  the  Beaver-pond  meadows,  and  a  field  far- 
ther west  than  these,  which  remained  unfenced,  and 
was  called  the  Common. 

By  means  of  this  sequestration,  the  out-lands  of  the 
Yorkshire  quarter  were  so  assigned  that  they  were  im- 
mediately contiguous  to  the  house-lots  to  which  they 
belonged,  lying  between  the  common  land  on  the  north 
and  Chapel  Street  on  the  south,  and  extending  from 
York  Street  westward  to  or  beyond  West  River.  The 
Herefordshire  quarter,  lying  between  Chapel  Street  and 
Oak  Street,  extended  from  York  Street  to  or  beyond  the 
river.  Mr.  Gregson's  out-land  quarter  lay  south  of  the 
Herefordshire  quarter,  and  was  bounded  on  the  east  by 
the  road  to  Milford,  which  passed  through  Broad  Street 
and  Davenport  Avenue,  as  they  are  now  named.  Next 
was  the  suburbs  quarter,  between  Milford  Road  and 
Washington  Street.  Last  in  our  enumeration,  Mr. 
Lamberton's  quarter  covered  all  the  land  between  Wash- 
ington Street  and  the  harbor. 

There  still  remained  within  the  two-miles-square  four 
reservations  besides  those  which  have  been  mentioned  : 
viz.,  one  called  the  market-place  ;  another  containing  so 
much  of  the  land  bordering  on  the  West  Creek  as  had 
not  been  allotted  to  persons  who  were  not  proprietors ; 


I06  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

a  third  containing  the  land  bordering  on  the  East  Creek ; 
a  fourth  called  Oyster-shell  Field,  east  of  the  East 
Creek  reservation,  and  comprehended  between  Chapel 
Street  and  a  line  about  three  hundred  feet  north  of 
East  Water  Street.  The  last-named  tract  was  leased 
from  year  to  year  to  persons  who  desired  to  cultivate 
more  land  than  they  owned  The  reserved  land  on 
both  sides  of  the  two  creeks  was  either  allotted  in  small 
parcels  to  persons  who  were  not  proprietors,  or  was 
reserved  to  be  so  disposed  of  when  there  should  be 
occasion. 

In  the  first  division  of  out-lands,  no  provision  was 
made  for  those  who  had  been  gratuitously  supplied  with 
house-lots ;  but  in  the  second  division  the  rule  was 
,o3  adopted  to  allot  "six  acres  for  a  single  person,  eight 
acres  for  a  man  and  his  wife,  with  an  acre  added  for 
every  child  they  have  at  present."  If  they  accepted 
these  out-lands,  they  were  to  pay  taxes  on  them  as  other 
planters  did,  at  the  rate  of  twopence  per  acre ;  and  "  if 
any  of  them,  satisfied  with  their  trades,  or  not  liking 
the  place  of  their  allotment,  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to 
take  up  the  land,  yet  every  one  admitted  to  be  a  planter 
shall  pay  twelvepence  a  year  to  the  treasurer  toward 
public  charges." 

The  out-lands  thus  assigned-  to  each  of  the  nine  quar- 
ters were  subdivided  according  to  the  same  rule  of 
division  which  had  obtained  in  the  division  of  the  town 
quarters ;  every  planter  having  **  a  proportion  of  land 
according  to  the  proportion  of  estate  which  he  hath 
given  in,  and  number  of  heads  in  his  family."  Five 
acres  were  allowed  for  every  hundred  pounds  of  estate, 
and  an  equal  quantity  for  every  two  heads.     These  sub- 


DIVISION  OF  LAND,  lO/ 

divisions,  however,  were  not  separated  one  from  another 
by  division  fences  ;  but  each  quarter  was  enclosed  by  a 
common  fence,  for  his  proportion  of  which  every  pro- 
prietor was  responsible.  As  might  be  expected,  much 
legislation  and  frequent  fines  were  necessary  to  keep 
these  fences  sufficient  for  the  protection  of  the  enclos- 
ures  from  the  forays  of  hungry  cattle. 

The  meadows  were  sufficient  to  afford  five  acres  for 
every  hundred  pounds  of  estate  and  half  an  acre  for 
every  head,  and  an  addition  in  quantity  to  some  allot- 
ments where  the  quality  was  inferior.  The  neck  was 
divided  so  as  to  give  one  acre  for  every  hundred  pounds, 
and  half  an  acre  for  every  head. 

Some  months  after  this  division  was  ordered,  and,  as 
it  would  seem,  before  it  was  consummated,  a  second 
allotment  was  made,  disposing  of  those  portions  of  the 
common  property  which  lay  outside  of  the  two-miles- 
square.  At  a  general  court  held  the  23d  of  October, 
1640,  it  was  "  ordered  that  in  the  second  division  every 
planter  in  the  town  shall  have  for  every  hundred  pounds 
of  estate  given  in,  twenty  acres  of  upland,  and  for  every 
head  two  acres  and  a  half." 

The  sequestered  lands  were  held  as  common  property 
for  many  years,  but  were  ultimately  divided,  one  portion 
after  another,  till,  with  some  unimportant  exceptions, 
only  the  market-place  was  held  in  common.  After  the 
second  division  of  lands,  and  probably  in  fulfilment  of 
an  order  passed  at  the  general  court  mentioned  above, 
that  "all  the  upland  in  the  first  division,  with  all  the 
meadows  in  the  plantation,,  shall  pay  fooirpence  an  acre 
yearly ;  and  all  the  land  in  the  second  division  shall  pay 
twopence  an  acre  yearly,  at  two  several  days  of  payment. 


I08  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

viz.,  the  one  in  April,  and  the  other  in  October,  to  raise 
a  common  stock  or  public  treasury,"  the  following  sched- 
ule was  prepared,  exhibiting  the  name  of  every  proprie- 
tor, the  number  of  persons  in  his  family,  the  amount  of 
his  estate,  and  the  number  of  acres  belonging  to  him 
in  each  of  four  classes  of  land  ;  viz.,  the  first  division  of 
upland,  the  neck,  the  meadows,  and  the  second  divis- 
ion of  upland.  The  eighth  and  last  column  shows  the 
amount  of  his  annual  tax.  The  schedule,  though  pre- 
pared before  April,  1641,  is  found  in  the  record-book 
amid  the  records  of  1643.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine 
whether  it  was  copied  into  the  record-book  in  1643, 
after  some  changes  had  been  made  corresponding  with 
changes  of  title  ;  or  was  recorded  when  first  prepared, 
the  secretary  reserving  for  his  report  of  the  court's 
proceedings  the  thirty  pages  which  precede  it.' 

This  schedule  furnishes  important  aid  in  determining 
who  were  proprietors  of  the  town  in  the  first  years  of 
its  history,  the  social  importance  of  each  so  far  as  the 
measure  of  his  wealth  determined  it,  and,  when  studied 
in  connection  with  the  land-records  of  the  town,  the 
location  of  his  house-lot.  The  schedule  disposes  the 
proprietors  into  eleven  groups ;  eight  of  which  occu- 
pied the  eight  squares  surrounding  the  market-place ; 
another  group,  consisting  of  only  four,  had  their  dwell- 
ings on  East  Water  Street,  fronting  the  harbor;  the 
remaining  two  inhabited  the  two  blocks  of  land  of  irreg- 
ular shape,  called  suburbs. 

'  "  Mr.  Crane  resigned  Mr.  Hickock*s  lot  into  the  town's  hand,"  Sept 
30,  1641 ;  yet  the  lot  stands  in  Mr.  Hickock's  name.  There  is  so  much 
probability  that  the  schedule  was  recorded  before  the  collection  of  the  rate 
due  in  April,  1641,  that  it  will  be  designated  as  the  schedule  of  164 1. 


DIV/SIOJ^  OF  LAND. 


OaiidVaie    .  . 

Willkm  Tmile  . 

CapL  Turner  . 

RicbudPcny  . 


Mr-  DvvcDpon  .    . 
Rkhard  Malboa 

Tboftuu  KtmbcdcT 
t.  Rswc.     .     .     . 


GvDT^  IjiDtbntan  . 

Thomu  lifrriu 
RobOlSxIcy 

JshnPudd     . 

WULui  Prawi 
Beniamip  Fenn 
WLlliilil  louct 

KHET  AlLillE  . 

Mr.  HKkocE . 
Mi.  Muufidd 

Saijni  GoDdyeu  . 
WnLuD  Havkiiu    . 


ThamuWddi  . 


WilUim  Fowkr . 


Til 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 


Widmr  Baldwin.  . 
AnEIdH  .  .  .  . 
RichirdPlan  .  . 
ZachjiTUh  WluDDiui 
Thmniu  Otbonie     . 

Thonuu  Tmobridgc 


Ednid  Banniiti: 


Anthony  Thompscn 


George  Smilh 
Widow  ShermiD 
Matihew  Moulib 

Widow  Crow'  . 
ThonuiVak:. 
Thaaiai  FuEiU 
John  Pundmisi 


ft!: 


DIVISION  OF  LAND. 


1^1^  Fu| 


Hvnry  Bnrwnmff  , 

Un,Hiigin>on.  . 

-1-anJTWli   ,  . 

W-|dii>  WiHii^'  '. 


ioluiQiSo 
l>lvIdAtw; 


Ur.  MinluU     .    . 


GcDTic  Wild 


Ji_ 

I II 06 

t   09   <i6 

;3S 


Is 


Commencing  with  this  distribution  of  the  proprietors 
into  groups,  and  studying  the  land-records  of  the  town, 
one  may  assign  to  almost  every  proprietor  his  house-lot 
in  respect  of  location  and,  approximately,  of  measure. 
The  map  opposite  the  title-page  was  drawn  with  these 


112  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

aids.'  It  locates  the  house-lots  of  all  the  proprietors  ex- 
cept eleven.  Of  the  thirty-two  non-proprietors,  seven 
had  "  small  lots  **  given  them  on  East  Water  Street,  east 
of  the  lots  of  the  four  proprietors  who  lived  on  that 
street,  and  twenty-five  were  accommodated  between 
George  Street  and  the  West  Creek. 

While  the  division  of  lands  was  in  progress,  the  name 
of  the  plantation  was  changed,  by  order  of  a  general 
court  held  on  the  first  day  of  September,  1640,  from  Quin- 
nipiac  to  New  Haven.  There  is  no  reason  for  believing 
that  any  of  .the  planters  came  from  the  port  of  that  name 
on  the  southern  shore  of  England,  and  the  record  gives 
no  clew  to  the  reasons  which  influenced  the  court  in 

*  The  author  of  this  history  is  alone  responsible  for  the  map ;  but  he 
thankfully  acknowledges  his  obligation  to  Henry  White,  Esq.,  for  the 
use  of  manuscript  volumes  which  trace  the  land-titles  from  the  original 
to  the  present  proprietors,  and  for  assistance  in  the  solution  of  difficult 
problems.  He  feels  some  degree  of  confidence  in  regard  to  all  the  eleven 
groups,  except  that  occupying  the  suburb  on  the  west  side  of  West  Creek. 
Several  transfers  of  title  occurred  in  this  group  before  the  recording  of 
alienations  was  imperative,  and  the  shape  of  the  quarter  has  been  so 
changed  that  its  original  boundaries  have  not  been  ascertained.  Only 
three,  therefore,  of  the  proprietors  in  this  quarter  have  been  located  on 
the  map ;  namely,  William  Ives,  George  Smith,  and  Widow  Sherman. 

The  dotted  lines  on  the  map  represent  fences  of  uncertain  location.  A 
street,  cut  from  the  corner  of  George  and  York  Streets  through  to  Oak 
Street,  would  be  in  line  with  Oak  Street,  and  I  am  credibly  informed  that 
there  was  such  a  street ;  but  how  Mr.  Gregson*s  quarter  was  bounded  on 
the  side  toward  the  town,  I  cannot  determine.  The  dotted  lines  on  one 
side  of  the  suburb  lying  west  of  West  Creek  are  nearly  coincident  with 
the  lines  of  Lafayette  Street;  but  I  am  told  that  Lafayette  is  a  modem 
street.  There  must  have  been  an  ancient  lane  nearly  coincident  with  it, 
since  one  of  the  lots  is  described  in  1679  ^is  bounded  east  by  the  street 
(Hill  Street),  and  "  west  by  the  way  that  goeth  down  to  Jonathan  Lamson*s 
lot  on  the  bankside." 


DIVISION  OF  LAND.  1 1 3 

naming  their  plantation.  In  dropping  the  aboriginal 
designation,  and  adopting  one  familiar  to  Englishmen, 
they  followed  the  custom  of  their  time.  They  did  it 
perhaps  partly  for  their  own  pleasure,  but  more  for  the 
gratification  of  friends ;  for  in  the  course  of  two  years, 
use  must  have  greatly  diminished  the  uncouthness,  to 
English  ears,  of  the  Indian  name.  A  letter  of  Daven- 
port to  his  early  friend  and  patron,  Lady  Vere,  is  extant, 
in  which  he  speaks  of  the  arrival,  in  the  summer  of 
1639,  ^^  ^^  first  ship  from  England  ;  and  in  it  he  says, 
"  The  sight  of  the  harbor  did  so  please  the  captain  of 
the  ship,  and  all  the  passengers,  that  he  called  it  the 
Fair  Haven."  Perhaps  this  attempt  of  the  English 
captain  to  give  an  English  name  occasioned  the  formal 
action  of  the  court  a  twelvemonth  afterward,  which  is 
thus  recorded,  "This  town  now  called  New  Haven.** 
Perhaps,  also,  this  ship  which  first  cast  anchor  in  the 
harbor  of  New  Haven,  bringing  passengers  from  Kent, 
Surrey,  and  Sussex,  had  weighed  anchor  in  the  port  of 
that  name  on  the  coast  of  Sussex. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   PERSONNEL   OF   THE   PLANTATION. 

WITH  the  map  in  hand,  let  us  survey  the  town, 
and  review  the  list  of  proprietors.  As  we  pass 
around  the  several  quarters,  perhaps  no  time  will  be 
more  suitable  for  such  information  in  regard  to  the 
colonists  as  is  obtainable  and  of  sufficient  importance 
to  be  recorded. 

Commencing  with  the  north-east  quarter,  we  find  a 
large  part  of  it  owned  by  Gov.  Eaton  and  his  rela- 
tions. The  governor's  homestead  was  on  Elm  Street, 
about  equidistant  from  the  comers  of  the  square.  Here 
he  lived  with  his  wife,  his  mother,  his  four  children,  and 
the  two  sons  of  his  wife  by  her  first  husband.  In  later 
years  Mrs.  Hopkins,  wife  of  Edward  Hopkins,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Hartford,  having  become  incurably  insane, 
spent  much  time  in  the  family  under  the  care  of  her 
mother."     Several  young  persons  of  both  sexes,  wards 

'  Winthrop  writes  in  his  diary  April  13,  1645:  "Mr.  Hopkins,  the 
governor  of  Hartford  upon  Connecticut,  came  to  Boston  and  brought  his 
wife  with  him  (a  godly  young  woman  and  of  special  parts),  who  was  fallen 
into  a  sad  infirmity,  the  loss  of  her  understanding  and  reason,  which  had 
been  growing  upon  her  divers  years,  by  occasion  of  her  giving  herself 
wholly  to  reading  and  writing,  and  had  written  many  books.  Her  hus- 
band, being  very  loving  and  tender  of  her,  was  loath  to  grieve  her ;  but  he 
"4 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF   THE  PLANTATION.        IIJ 

of  Eaton,  also  found  a  home  under  his  roof.  In  addi- 
tion, there  was,  as  appears  from  the  records,  a  numerous 
retinue  of  servants  for  the  work  of  the  house  and  of  the 
field.  Mather  says  that  the  family  sometimes  consisted 
of  not  less  than  thirty  persons. 

The  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society  has  in  its 
possession  a  portrait  said  to  have  belonged  to  the 
Eaton   family.     It   was   painted   in    1635,  and   in   the 


twenty-fifth  year  of  the  age  of  the  lady  whom  it  pictures. 
In  one  corner  is  a  coat  of  arms,  which,  in  connection 
with  the  dates,  may  determine  whether  it  represents 
Mrs.  Hopkins,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Eaton  by  her  first 
husband,  or  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Gov,  Eaton  by  his 

taw  his  error  when  it  was  too  lace.  For  if  slic  had  attended  het  household 
aflairs  and  such  things  as  belong  to  women,  and  not  gone  out  al  her  wav 
and  calling  to  meddle  in  such  things  as  are  proper  for  men,  whose  minds 
are  stronger.  &c.,  she  had  kept  her  wits,  and  might  have  improved  them 
iMdullj  and  honorably  in  the  place  God  had  set  her." 


Il6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

first  wife,  or  some  other  lady.  At  present  the  question 
is  in  suspense. 

The  principal  apartment  of  the  dwelling-house,  de- 
nominated, as  in  the  mother-country,  the  hall,  was  the 
first  to  be  entered.  It  was  suflSciently  spacious  to  ac- 
commodate the  whole  family  when  assembled  at  meals 
and  at  prayers.  It  contained,  according  to  the  inven- 
tory taken  after  the  governor's  decease,  "a  drawing- 
table,'*  "a  round  table,"  "green  cushions,"  "a  great 
chair  with  needlework,"  "high  chairs,"  "high  stools," 
"low  chairs,"  "low  stools,"  "Turkey  carpets,"  "high 
wine  stools,"  and  "great  brass  andirons." 

"  The  parlor,"  probably  adjoining  the  hall  and  having 
windows  opening  upon  the  street,  served  as  a  withdraw- 
ing-room,  to  which  the  elder  members  of  the  family  and 
their  guests  retired  from  the  crowd  and  bustle  of  the 
hall.  But,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time,  the 
parlor  contained  the  furniture  of  a  bedroom,  and  was 
occasionally  used  as  the  sleeping-apartment  of  a  guest. 

Mather,  speaking  of  Eaton's  manner  of  life,  says  that 
"  it  was  his  custom  when  he  first  rose  in  the  morning  to 
repair  unto  his  study ;  "  and  again,  that,  "being  a  great 
reader,  all  the  time  he  could  spare  from  company  and 
business,  he  commonly  spent  in  his  beloved  study'' 
There  is  no  mention  in  the  inventor}'  of  "  the  study," 
but  perhaps  the  apartment  referred  to  by  Mather  was 
described  by  the  appraisers  as  "the  counting-house," 
the  two  names  denoting  that  it  was  used  both  as  a 
library  and  as  an  oflSce. 

If  these  three  rooms  filled  the  front  of  the  mansion, 
the  reader  may  locate  behind  them  at  his  own  discretion 
the  winter-kitchen,  the  summer-kitchen,  the  buttery,  the 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF   THE  PLANTATION        II7 

pantry,  —  offices  necessarily  implied,  even  if  not  men- 
tioned as  connected  with  an  extensive  homestead  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  —  and  then  add  the  brew-house 
and  the  warehouse,  both  mentioned  in  the  inventory. 

Of  the  sleeping-apartments  in  the  second  story,  the 
green  chamber,  so  called  from  the  color  of  its  drapery, 
was  chief  in  the  expensiveness  and  elegance  of  its  furni- 
ture, and  presumably  in  its  size,  situation,  and  wainscot- 
ing. The  walls  of  the  blue  chamber  were  hung  with 
tapestry,  but  the  green  drapery  was  of  better  quality 
than  the  blue.  The  blue  chamber  had  a  Turkey  carpet, 
but  the  appraisers  set  a  higher  value  on  the  carpet  in 
the  green  chamber.  All  the  other  sleeping-rooms  were 
furnished  each  with  a  feather-bed  of  greater  or  less 
value,  but  the  green  chamber  had  a  bed  of  down.  In 
this  chamber,  probably,  was  displayed  the  silver  basin 
and  ewer,  double  gilt,  and  curiously  wrought  with  gold, 
which  the  Fellowship  of  Eastland  Merchants  had  pre- 
sented to  Mrs.  Eaton,  in  acknowledgment  of  her  hus- 
band's services  as  their  agent  in  the  countries  about 
the  Baltic.  The  appraisers  valued  it  at  forty  pounds 
sterling,  but  did  not  put  it  in  the  inventory  because 
Mrs.  Eaton  claimed  it  as  "her  proper  estate.*' 

There  was  in  the  house,  in  addition  to  the  bowl  and 
ewer,  plate  to  the  value  of  one  hundred  and  seven 
pounds,  eleven  shillings,  sterling.  Taking  into  consid- 
eration all  that  we  know  of  the  house  and  furniture, 
we  must  conclude  with  Hubbard,  that  the  governor 
"maintained  a  port  in  some  measure  answerable  to 
his  place." 

Samuel  Eaton,  who  owned  and  occupied  the  land 
between  his  brother's  premises  and  State  Street,  ob- 


\ 


Il8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

taining  in  1640  from  the  court  a  grant  of  Totoket,  "for 
such  friends  as  he  shall  bring  over  from  old  England, 
and  upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  agreed  betwixt  himself 
and  the  committee  chosen  to  that  purpose/'  sailed  for 
the  mother-country,  to  return  with  a  band  of  colonists 
and  settle  a  new  plantation  at  Branford.  But  he  found 
his  friends  well  pleased  with  the  new  condition  of  affairs 
in  England,  and  unwilling  to  emigrate.  He  himself,  pre- 
ferring to  remain  in  his  native  land,  sent  a  power^f- 
attomey  to  his  brother ;  by  whom  the  corner-lot,  which 
had  been  Samuel  Eaton's,  was  sold  in  1649  to  Francis 
Newman.  It  afterward  became  the  property  of  James 
Bishop,  and  remained  in  his  family  more  than  two 
centuries. 

Edward  Hopkins,  though  he  settled  in  Hartford,  was 
one  of  the  first  proprietors  of  Quinnipiac.  At  a  court 
held  the  third  day  of  November,  1639,  the  town  ordered, 
"that  Mr.  Hopkins  shall  have  two  hogsheads  of  lime 
for  his  present  use,  and  as  much  more  as  will  finish  his 
house  as  he  now  intends  it,  he  thinking  that  two  hogs- 
heads more  will  serve."  One  can  scarcely  doubt  that 
Mr.  Hopkins's  house  was  in  the  same  quarter  with  that 
of  his  beloved  father-in-law;  but  the  tax-schedule  of 
1641  does  not  contain  his  name,  and  there  is  no  exist- 
ing record  of  the  alienation  of  the  house  and  land.  The 
order  concerning  the  lime  seems  to  imply  that  he  had 
made  some  change  in  his  intentions,  and  we  may  infer 
that  his  determination  to  settle  in  Hartford  was  formed 
after  the  house  was  begun  and  before  it  was  finished. 
Having  spent  some  time  in  Connecticut,  while  his 
fellow-passengers  in  the  Hector  were  sojourning  in 
Massachusetts,  he  did  not  rejoin  them  when  they  re- 


THE  PERSONNEL  OF  THE  PLANTATION.       II9 

moved  to  Quinnipiac,  though  he  retained  his  interest 
as  a  joint-proprietor  in  their  plantation.  Becoming 
gradually  adherent  to  Connecticut,  where  he  sat  as  a 
deputy  in  the  General  Court  as  early  as  March,  1638, 
and  was  chosen  to  assist  in  the  magistracy  in  April, 
1639*  J^^  probably  sold  his  estate  in  New  Haven  before 
the  tax-schedule  of  1641  was  written  ;  but  which  of  the 
proprietors  in  the  governor's  quarter  succeeded  him, 
cannot  be  determined.  Though  removed  from  daily 
intercourse  with  Eaton,  he  cherished  such  love  for  him 
to  the  end  of  life,  that,  as  he  lay  on  his  death-bed  in 
England,  he  said,  "How  often  have  I  pleased  myself 
with  thoughts  of  a  joyful  meeting  with  my  father 
Eaton !  I  remember  with  what  pleasure  he  would 
come  down  the  street,  that  he  might  meet  me  when  I 
came  from  Hartford  to  New  Haven ;  but  with  how 
much  greater  pleasure  shall  we  shortly  meet  one  an- 
other in  heaven  ! "  In  his  will,  after  providing  for  his 
"poor  distressed  wife,"  and  giving  to  friends  tokens  of 
his  affection,  he  bequeathed  his  estate  to  trustees  for 
the  promotion  of  liberal  education  in  New  England. 
The  Hopkins  Grammar  School  in  New  Haven  owes 
its  existence  to  this  bequest. 

Although  we  cannot  determine  with  certainty  where 
Mr.  Hopkins's  house  was  situated,  it  is  a  plausible  con- 
jecture that  he  alienated  his  land  and  buildings  to 
William  Tuttle,  who,  in  1641,  owned  the  lot  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Grove  and  State  Streets.  Mr.  Tuttle,  who  came 
over  in  the  Planter  in  1635,  was,  in  April,  1639,  still 
a  resident  of  Boston,  as  appears  from  the  baptism  of 
one  of  his  children  there  on  the  seventh  day  of  that 
month ;  but  some  time  in  the  same  year  he  removed  to 


120  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Quinnipiac,  for  he  signed  the  fundamental  agreement 
before  it  was  copied  into  the  record-book.  Although 
not  a  member  of  the  court,  he  was  active  and  influen- 
tial in  public  affairs.  His  daughter  Elizabeth  became 
the  wife  of  Richard  Edwards  of  Hartford,  and  the 
mother  of  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards  of  East  Windsor, 
who  numbered  among  his  children  the  greatest  of 
American  metaphysicians  and  ten  daughters,  "every 
one  of  which  has  been  said  to  be  six  feet  tall,  making 
sixty  feet  of  daughters,  all  of  them  strong  in  mind."  * 
•  The  lot  on  Grove  Street,  adjoining  Mr.  Tuttle's,  be- 
longed to  the  mother  of  Theophilus  and  Samuel  Eaton ; 
but,  as  she  was  an  inmate  of  the  governor's  family, 
probably  no  buildings  were  erected  while  it  was  in  her 
possession.     She  sold  it,  in  1646,  to  Richard  Perry. 

West  of  Mrs.  Eaton's  land  was  that  of  David  Yale, 
who,  when  the  schedule  of  1641  was  written,  was  still 
unmarried.  In  1645  he  purchased  a  house  in  Boston, 
where  his  second  child  was  born  the  same  year.  While 
residing  in  Boston  he  distinguished  himself  as  a  friend 
of  the  Church  of  England,  joining  with  a  few  others 
in  a  petition  for  liberty  to  use  its  liturgy.  A  few  years 
later  he  returned  to  the  mother-country,  where  he  re- 
mained to  the  end  of  life.  To  his  care  his  still  insane 
sister  was  committed  by  Gov.  Hopkins,  when  he  died  in 
1657.  He  was  the  father  of  Elihu  Yale,  for  whSn  Yale 
College  was  named. 

Ezekiel  Cheever,  who  lived  at  the  corner  of  Grove 
and  Church  Streets,  came  in  ^  the  Hector  from  Lon- 
don, where  he  was  born,  Jan.  25,  161 5.  He  opened  a 
school  in  his  own  house  a  few  months  after  he  arrived 

'  Semi-centennial  sermon  of  Rev.  Joab  Brace,  D.D. 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        121 

at  Quinnipiac  with  the  main  company  of  planters,  and 
was  thenceforth  the  schoolmaster  of  the  plantation, 
receiving  for  some  time  a  yearly  stipend  of  twenty 
pounds,  which,  in  1644,  was  increased  to  thirty  pounds. 
He  was  one  of  the  twelve  chosen  for  the  foundation 
work  of  the  Church  and  State,  and,  though  never  or- 
dained to  the  ministry,  occasionally  preached.  Both 
in  the  field  of  education  and  in  the  field  of  theology  he 
was  an  author,  having  written  "A  Short  Introduction 
to  the  Latin  Tongue,*'  which  he  called  an  "  Accidence,*' 
and  a  book  on  the  millennium,  under  the  title  "  Scripture 
Prophecies  Explained."  He  was  chosen  a  member  of 
the  Court  for  the  plantation  at  its  first  session,  when  it 
was  instituted  by  the  seven  appointed  for  that  purpose, 
and,  in  1646,  was  one  of  the  deputies  to  the  General 
Court  of  the  Jurisdiction.  Dissenting  from  the  judg- 
ment of  the  church  and  its  elders,  in  respect  to  some 
cases  of  discipline,  he  commented  on  their  action  with 
such  severity  that  he  was  himself  censured  in  1649.' 
Soon  after  this,  and  perhaps  on  account  of  it,  he  re- 
moved from  New  Haven,  and,  according  to  Mather, 
"died  in  Boston,  August  21,  1708,  in  the  ninety-fourth 
year  of  his  age,  after-  he  had  been  a  skilful,  painful, 
faithful  schoolmaster  for  seventy  years."  President 
Stiles  mentions  two  aged  clergymen  of  his  acquaintance 
who  haf  been  pupils  of  Cheever,  one  of  whom  said, 
"that  he  wore  a  long  white  beard,  terminating  in  a 
point ;  that,  when  he  stroked  his  beard  to  the  point,  it 
was  a  sign  to  the  boys  to  stand  clear." 
Nathanael  Turner,  whose   home-lot  was  on  Church 

*  In  Conn.  Hist  Soc,  Coll.  I.,  may  be  seen  the  "Trial  of  Ezekiel 
Chccver,  before  the  Church  at  New  Haven." 


122  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Street,  next  south  of  Mr.  Cheever's,  came  from  Eng- 
land with  Winthrop  in  1630,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
considerable  citizens  of  Lynn,  representing  the  town  in 
the  first  General  Court  of  Massachusetts.  In  January, 
1637,  his  house  was  destroyed  by  fire,  "with  all  that 
was  in  it  save  the  persons ; "  and  this  event  happening 
the  same  year  that  tidings  came  of  "  that  famous  place 
called  Quinnipiac,"  with  "a  fair  river,  fit  for  harboring 
of  ships,"  and  "rich  and  goodly  meadows,**  may  have 
occasioned  his  removal  from  Lynn.  Having  had  mili- 
tary experience  as  an  officer  in  the  Pequot  war,  he  was 
from  the  beginning  intrusted  with  "  the  command  and 
ordering  of  all  martial  affairs  '*  in  the  new  plantation. 
To  facilitate  the  performance  of  this  trust  it  was  ordered 
by  the  Court  "  that  Capt.  Turner  shall  have  his  lot  of 
meadow  and  upland  where  he  shall  choose  it  for  his 
own  convenience,  that  he  may  attend  the  service  of  the 
town  which  his  place  requires."  He  accordingly  located 
a  farm  about  three  miles  from  the  market-place,  between 
East  Rock  and  Quinnipiac  River.  After  his  death,  if 
not  before,  his  family  resided  at  the  farm.  He  was  lost 
at  sea  in  "  the  great  ship  "  which  sailed  from  New  Haven 
in  January,  1646. 

Richard  Perry,  the  only  proprietor  in  Mr.  Eaton's 
quarter  who  has  not  been  mentioned,  lived  at  the  comer 
of  Church  and  Elm  Streets.  Having  married  Mary, 
the  daughter  of  Richard  Malbon,  in  the  old  country,  he 
accompanied  his  father-in-law  from  London  to  New 
Haven.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the  public  affairs 
of  the  plantation,  and  in  1646,  when  Fugill,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  court,  had  fallen  into  disgrace,  was  chosen 
to  succeed  him  in  that  office.     He  sold  his  house  to 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF   THE  PLANTATION.        123 

Thomas  Kimberly  in  1649,  and  after  that  date  his  name 
does  not  occur  in  the  records. 

Passing  from  the  north-east  square  to  the  east-centre 
square,  we  find  Mr.  Davenport's  lot  on  the  comer  of  Elm 
and  State  Streets,  and  his  house  on  Elm  Street,  nearly 
opposite  Mr.  Eaton's.  Here  the  pastor  and  his  wife 
received  their  only  child  after  a  separation  from  him  of 


of  Yali  ClJIeitl 


more  than  two  years ;  the  child  having  been  left  in  Eng- 
land, and  brought  over  by  a  maid-servant  in  a  ship,  which, 
in  the  summer  of  1639,  sailed  from  England  direct  for 
the  harbor  of  Quinnipiac. 

Richard  Malbon  lived  on  State  Street,  his  lot  being 
next  south  of  Mr.  Davenport's.  He  was  one  of  the 
London  merchants  who  came  with  Eaton  and  Daven- 
port, was  one  of  the  twelve  chosen  for  the  foundation 
of  Church  and  State,  and  one  of  the  five  whom  the 


124  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

twelve  sifted  out  of  that  number  by  their  own  action 
before  the  foundation  was  laid.  For  some  reason,  prob- 
ably for  want  of  church-membership,  he  was  not  ad- 
mitted a  member  of  the  court  till  February,  1642 ;  but 
only  two  months  after  he  was  made  a  freeman,  he  was 
chosen  one  of  four  deputies  for  the  half-year  ensuing 
to  assist  the  magistrates  "  by  way  of  advice,  but  not  to 
have  any  power  by  way  of  sentence,"  and  was  the  first- 
named  of  the  four.  Such  a  limitation  was  expressly 
put  upon  the  deputies  in  the  October  election  of  that 
year,  and  was  probably  implied  in  the  election  six 
months  before.  In  this  office  he  was  continued  for  a 
long  time  by  re-election,  and,  after  the  organization  of 
the  Colonial  Government,  was  often  a  deputy  to  repre- 
sent the  plantation  in  the  General  Court  of  the  Juris- 
diction. In  1646  he  was  appointed  by  that  body,  one 
of  its  magistrates  in  New  Haven.  The  town  mani- 
fested its  confidence  in  him  as  a  military  ofpcer  by 
appointing  him  "  to  order  the  watches  and  all  the  mar- 
tial affairs  of  this  plantation,"  during  Capt.  Turner's 
absence  at  the  Delaware  Bay  in  1642 ;  and  again,  when 
Turner  was  about  to  embark  in  the  ill-fated  ship  of  1646, 
by  choosing  Malbon  "  captain,  with  liberty  to  resign  his 
place  to  Capt.  Turner  at  his  return."  Mr.  Malbon  was 
an  enterprising  merchant,  trading  coastwise  and  in  the 
West  Indies.  He  was  also  one  of  "the  company  of 
merchants  of  New  Haven,"  who  chartered  for  a  voyage 
to  England  the  ship  in  which  the  town  lost  so  much 
property  and  so  many  valuable  lives. 

Next  south  of  the  Malbon  house  was  that  of  Thomas 
Nash,  formerly  a  member  of  the  church  in  Leyden,  Hol- 
land, and  one  of  the  five  who  wrote  from  that  city  in 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF   THE  PLANTATION        125 

1625,  to  their  brethren  in  Plymouth,  informing  them  of 
the  death  of  John  Robinson,  pastor  of  the  church  which 
included  in  its  membership  the  planters  of  Plymouth, 
as  well  as  the  brethren  still  sojourning  in  Leyden.  Mr. 
Nash  came  from  England  to  New  Haven  with  Mr.  Whit- 
field and  his  company,  and  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
agreement  which  that  company  made  on  shipboard  to 
remain  together.  But  being  not  only  a  smith,  )3Ut  a 
gunsmith,  it  was  for  the  common  welfare  as  well  as  his 
own,  that  he  should  have  his  shop  in  the  largest  and 
most  central  plantation.  His  change  of  purpose  was 
probably  after  the  fundamental  agreement  was  made,  as 
he  had  not  signed  his  name  to  it  when  it  was  copied 
into  the  record-book.  He  must  have  been  advanced 
beyond  the  zenith  of  life,  for  his  eldest  son  became  a 
proprietor  and  a  freeman  not  long  after  his  father. 

John  Benham  probably  came  from  England  in  1630, 
and  had  been  a  freeman  in  Dorchester,  Mass.  Remov- 
ing to  New  Haven,  he  wrought  as  a  brickmaker.  As  late 
as  165 1  he  petitioned  for  compensation  for  time  spent 
at  the  first  settlement  in  searching  for  clay  suitable  for 
making  brick,  and  his  claim  was  allowed.  He  was  also, 
by  appointment,  town-crier.  Although  himself  a  free- 
man, he  was  at  one  time  implicated  in  what  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  the  Jurisdiction  regarded  as  "a  factious, 
if  not  seditious,"  opposition  to  the  "  fundamental  law  " 
which  limited  the  right  of  suffrage. 

John  Chapman  had  also  been  a  freeman  of  Massa- 
chusetts before  he  came  to  New  Haven.  He  removed 
to  Fairfield  in  1647,  and  thence  to  Stamford,  where  he 
made  his  will,  1665. 

Thomas  Kimberly  removed  from  Dorchester,  Mass., 


126  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

to  New  Haven,  where  he  was  admitted  a  freeman  in 
November,  1639.  ^^  ^s  said  that  his  son  Eleazar,  bap- 
tized the  same  month,  was  the  first  child  born  of  Eng- 
lish parents  in  Quinnipiac.  Mr.  Kimberly  was  one  of 
two  pound-keepers  appointed  by  the  town  in  Januarys 
1643  ;  and  the  pound  of  which  he  had  charge  was  situ- 
ated on  the  east  side  of  State  Street,  opposite  the  house 
of  Thomas  Nash.  Mr.  Kimberly  had  only  a  small  estate 
when  he  came  to  New  Haven,  but  his  five  children  enti- 
tled him  under  the  rule  of  allotment  to  a  much  larger 
acreage  than  he  could  draw  for  his  estate.  After  the 
removal  of  Seeley,  the  first  marshal,  Kimberly  was 
appointed  to  that  office. 

Matthew  Gilbert,  who  lived  at  the  comer  of  Chapel 
and  Church  Streets,  in  a  house  fronting  toward  the 
market-place,  doubtless  came  with  Eaton  and  Daven- 
port from  England,  for  there  is  no  record  of  him  in 
Massachusetts ;  but  whether  he  had  been  a  citizen  of 
London,  or  had  come  from  some  other  part  of  the  king- 
dom, is  not  known.  His  election  to  be  one  of  the  seven 
founders  of  the  theocracy  shows  that  he  was,  even  in 
the  beginning  of  the  settlement,  held  in  high  estima- 
tion ;  and  the  appointment  of  him  as  a  deacon  shows 
that  he  retained  the  confidence  of  the  church  in  subse- 
quent years.  He  was  honored  with  political  as  well  as 
ecclesiastical  office,  being  first  an  assistant  magistrate 
of  the  jurisdiction,  and  afterward  deputy-governor.  A 
rough  stone  still  standing  on  the  green,  marked  "  M.  G. 
80,'*  marks  the  place  of  his  burial.  President  Stiles  con- 
jectured that  the  M  was  a  W,  inverted  for  the  purpose 
of  concealing  from  his  enemies  the  last  resting-place  of 
William  Goffe,  the  regicide ;  but  acknowledged  that  he 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        12/ 

had  not  found  the  least  tradition  or  surmise  that  Goffe 
was  buried  in  New  Haven  till  he  himself  conjectured  it. 
The  initials  are  those  of  Matthew  Gilbert ;  and,  if  the 
Arabic  numerals  were  designed  (as  Stiles  supposed)  to 
express  that  the  person  buried  beneath  died  in  1680, 
they  give  correctly  the  date  of  Gilbert's  death.  More 
probably  they  were  meant  to  indicate  the  number  of 
years  he  had  lived. 

Owen  Rowe,  a  citizen  of  London,  took  stock  in  the 
plantation  company,  but  could  not  leave  home  when 
the  Hector  sailed.  He,  however,  sent  his  son  Nathaniel, 
a  boy  in  his  teens,  under  the  care  of  Davenport  and  the 
Eatons.  The  youth  was  left  behind  in  Massachusetts 
in  the  spring  of  1638,  that  he  might  pursue  his  studies 
under  the  care  of  Nathanael  Eaton,  the  brother  of 
Theophilus  and  Samuel  Eaton,  who  about  that  time 
commenced  his  extraordinary  and  disgraceful  career  as 
master  of  the  school  afterward  called  Harvard  Col- 
lege.' There  is  extant  a  pathetic  letter  from  young 
Rowe  to  Gov.  Winthrop,  complaining  that  Eaton  had 
never  given  him  any  instruction,  and  soliciting  the  gov- 
ernor to  advise  him  how  he  may  return  to  his  father.^ 
Owen  Rowe,  delaying  to  come  till  the  civil  war  broke 
out,  became  a  colonel  in  the  Parliamentary  army,  and, 
when  King  Charles  was  tried  for  treason,  was  one  of 
the  judges  who  condemned  him  to  death.  It  appears 
from  the  records,  that,  like  other  wealthy  friends  of  New 

'  The  coincidence  in  time  between  the  arrival  of  the  Hector,  and  the 
appearance  of  Nathaniel  Eaton  as  an  educator,  suggests  that  he  may  have 
come  in  the  same  ship  with  his  brothers.  Winthrop  in  his  Journal,  and 
Savage  in  his  Notes  thereupon,  have  jointly  given  a  graphic  picture  of 
him  and  of  his  wife,  the  housekeeper  of  the  college. 

'  This  letter  may  be  found  in  Appendix  II. 


128  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

England  who  did  not  emigrate,  he  sent  over,  as  an  ad- 
venture, some  cattle.  These  were  regarded  as  security 
for  the  expense  of  fencing,  and  for  the  rates  to  be  paid 
"  in  consideration  of  his  lot  and  estate  here  given  in." 
His  town-lot  was  on  Church  Street,  next  north  of  Mr. 
Gilbert's.  As  it  touched  Mr.  Davenport's  lot  in  the 
rear,  it  was  ordered  by  the  town  (doubtless  at  the  pas- 
tor's suggestion),  "that  when  Mr.  Rowe's  lot  shall  be 
fenced  in,  our  pastor  shall  have  a  way  or  passage  eight 
feet  broad  betwixt  it  and  Mr.  Crane's  lot,  that  he  may 
go  out  of  his  own  garden  to  the  meeting-house."  Mr. 
Rowe  not  making  his  appearance,  the  lot  was,  after 
some  years,  divided  and  granted  on  certain  conditions 
to  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Gilbert,  and  Mr.  Crane,  the 
adjoining  proprietors. 

The  lot  on  the  corner  of  Church  and  Elm  Streets 
was  at  first  reserved  by  the  proprietors  as  a  parsonage, 
if  at  Mr.  Davenport's  death  or  removal  it  should  be 
needed,  but  afterward  was  granted  to  Nicholas  Augur, 
a  practitioner  of  medicine.  This  grant  had  not  been 
made  when  the  schedule  of  1641  was  written,  and  the 
earliest  mention  of  Mr.  Augur  is  in  1644.  Some  rela- 
tion of  Mr.  Augur's  troubles  as  a  practitioner  of  medi- 
cine, and  of  the  wretchedness  of  his  death,  will  be  given 
in  subsequent  chapters. 

Jasper  Crane,  the  only  remaining  occupant  of  the 
east-centre  square,  was  presumably  from  London,  as  he 
was  much  connected  with  the  London  men  in  various 
ways.  He  first  put  in  his  estate  at  one  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds,  and  land  was  assigned  him  according  in 
amount  with  that  appraisal ;  but  before  the  meadows 
and  the  out-lands  of  the  third  division  were  allotted,  he 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        129 

was  permitted  to  increase  his  appraisal  to  four  hundred 
and  eighty  pounds,  and  receive  thereafter  correspond- 
ing allotments  of  land.  He  afterward  removed  to  Bran- 
ford  ;  represented  that  town  in  the  General  Court  of 
the  Jurisdiction  in  1653,  and  was  afterward  chosen  to 
be  a  magistrate. 

Four  lots  on  East  Water  Street,  fronting  the  harbor, 
were,  for  the  allotment  of  out-lands,  attached  to  Mr. 
Davenport's  quarter.  Their  proprietors  were  James 
Russell,  George  Ward,  Lawrence  Ward,  and  Moses 
Wheeler. 

Commencing  the  survey  of  the  south-east  square  at 
the  comer  of  Chapel  and  State  Streets,  we  find  the 
house  of  William  Preston,  a  Yorkshireman,  who  died 
in  1647,  leaving  a  large  family,  and  a  small  estate  here, 
which  was  supplemented  by  his  right  in  a  house,  land, 
and  other  goods  "  in  Yorkshire,  in  a  town  called  Gigles- 
weke,  in  Craven."  He  and  his  wife  had  the  care  of  the 
meeting-house,  which  she  was  to  "sweep  and  dress" 
every  week,  having  one  shilling  a  week  for  her  pains. 
He  was  at  one  time  under  the  censure  of  the  church, 
but  in  his  will  describes  himself  as  "  a  member  of  the 
church  of  New  Haven."  ' 

Next  to  the  premises  of  Mr.  Preston  were  those  of 
Richard  Mansfield,  who  came  to  Quinnipiac  with  the 
other  planters  as  a  steward  for  Mr.  Marshall  who  was 
perhaps  of  London  when  he  engaged  in  the  enterprise, 

'  Mr.  Malbon,  Mr.  Lamberton,  and  Mr.  Evance  contracted  with  the 
town  in  1644,  to  "dig  a  channel  which  shall  bring  boats,  at  least,  to  the 
end  of  the  street  beside  William  Preston's  house,  at  any  time  of  the  tide, 
except  they  meet  with  some  invincible  difficulty,  which  may  hinder  their 
digging  the  channel  so  deep." 


I30  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

but  afterward  of  Exeter.  There  was  presumably  no 
house  on  Mr.  Mansfield's  lot ;  for  he  was  at  first  in 
the  service  of  Mr.  Marshall,  and  afterward,  when  Mr. 
Marshall  had  abandoned  the  idea  of  coming,  bought  of 
him  his  lot  at  the  corner  of  Elm  and  Church  Streets. 
This  became  the  Mansfield  homestead,  and  a  part  of 
the  land  remained  in  possession  of  the  family  for  sev- 
eral generations.  It  seems,  however,  from  Mr.  Mans- 
field's will,  which  was  nuncupative,  and  declared  by  two 
of  his  neighbors,  that  at  the  time  of  his  decease  he  was 
residing  at  his  farm  between  East  Rock  and  Quinnipiac 
River.  Being  asked  if,  according  to  English  custom, 
he  would  give  more  to  his  elder  than  to  his  younger 
son,  he  replied  in  the  negative,  alleging  that  the  former 
"was  a  wild  boy,  and  the  younger  was  of  a  better 
spirit.*' 

Thomas  Jeffrey,  who  lived  next  south  of  Mr.  Mans- 
field's lot,  was  by  trade  a  tanner,  and  doubtless  had 
reference  to  his  trade  in  choosing  his  home-lot ;  for  a 
stream  of  water  flowed  through  his  land  at  that  time, 
though  it  has  long  since  disappeared.  At  an  early  day 
he  relinquished  his  trade,  to  become  a  mariner.  In 
1647,  "Capt.  Malbon  propounded  that  the  town  hath 
been  ill  provided  of  sergeants,  in  regard  that  Sergeant 
Jeffrey  is  abroad  much  by  reason  of  his  occasions  at 
sea,  therefore  whether  the  town  will  not  see  cause  to 
appoint  another  sergeant  in  his  room,  and  the  rather 
seeing  Sergeant  Jeffrey  hath  earnestly  desired  it,  as 
Lieut.  Seeley  and  Sergeant  Munson  did  testify  in  court. 
The  captain  also  affirmed  the  same,  and  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  move  for  a  change  till  that  now  he  under- 
standeth  Sergeant  Jeffrey  purposeth  to  employ  himself 
more  fully  in  sea  affairs." 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION       I3I 

George  Lamberton,  who  lived  next  south  of  Sergeant 
Jeffrey,  was  one  of  the  nine  proprietors,  who,  in  the 
schedule  of  1641,  are  rated  at  one  thousand  pounds. 
Of  these  nine,  however,  five  were  non-resident,  and 
soon  ceased  to  pay  rates.  So  that  Lamberton  was  one 
of  four  planters  who  were  excelled  only  by  Theophilus 
Eaton  in  the  amount  of  their  estates.  He  was  from  his 
first  appearance  in  the  plantation  a  mariner,  and  lost 
his  life  in  the  ship  which,  under  his  command,  left  the 
harbor  of  New  Haven  in  January,  1646,  and  was  never 
afterward  heard  from.  He  is  mentioned  by  Ezekiel 
Rogers  in  a  letter  to  Gov.  Winthrop,  in  a  manner  which 
suggests  that  he  had  been  one  of  Rogers's  flock.  His 
influence  as  a  man  of  mind  and  of  substance  may  have 
principally  occasioned  the  large  secession  of  Yorkshire- 
men  who  refused  to  return  to  the  Bay  when  sent  for 
by  Rogers.^ 

William  Wilkes,  who  lived  at  the  corner  of  State  and 
George  Streets,  removed  to  Quinnipiac  from  Boston, 
where  he  had  resided  since  1633.  He  went  to  England 
in  1644,  intending  to  return  ;  but,  instead  of  returning, 
he  sent  for  his  wife  to  join  him  in  England.  She,  em- 
barking in  Lamberton's  ship,  was  lost  at  sea.  News  of 
Mr.  Wilkes*s  decease  was  probably  received  soon  after ; 
for  a  will  made  by  his  wife  was  admitted  to  probate, 
which  disposed  of  their  whole  estate.  The  house  and 
orchard  were  sold  for  forty  pounds ;  the  house  being 
appraised  at  thirty  pounds,  and  the  land  at  ten  pounds. 

Benjamin  Fenn,  proprietor  of  the  lot  on  George 
Street,  adjoining  the  premises  of  William  Wilkes,  re- 
moved to  Milford  with  the  other  first  planters  of  that 

*  See  page  8j. 


132  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

town.  At  this  time  he  had  but  a  small  estate,  and  was 
in  no  way  prominent ;  but  afterward  he  became  one  of 
the  leading  men  in  the  colony. 

Robert  Seeley,  the  next  grantee,  sold,  in  1646,  "his 
house  and  house-lot  '*  to  John  Basset,  with  two  acres  of 
upland  out  of  his  first  division,  and  afterward  resided 
on  the  west  side  of  West  Creek,  as  appears  from  a  deed 
of  gift  which  he  made  of  "  his  dwelling-house  with  his 
orchard  **  to  his  son  Nathaniel.  He  had  removed  from 
Watertown,  now  called  Cambridge,  Mass.,  with  the  first 
planters  of  Connecticut,  and  had  been  Capt.  Mason's 
lieutenant  in  the  attack  on  the  Pequot  fort  at  Mystic. 
Removing  again,  he  came  to  Quinnipiac  before  its  plant- 
ers had  established  their  fundamental  agreement,  and 
was  admitted  a  freeman  on  the  day  the  court  was  organ- 
ized. He  was  by  trade  a  shoemaker ;  but  being  marshal 
of  the  court,  lieutenant  of  the  train-band,  and  captain 
of  the  artillery  company,  much  of  his  time  was  employed 
in  public  affairs.  In  the  autumn  of  1646,  about  the  time 
he  sold  his  house  in  Mr.  Lamberton's  quarter,  he  had 
"  liberty  of  the  court  to  go  for  England,  although  a  pub- 
lic officer."  It  appears,  however,  that  he  did  not  imme- 
diately use  his  liberty,  for  he  was  here  in  the  following 
February.  In  1649  he  was  minded  to  remove  from  the 
town,  and  offered  his  resignation ;  but  the  court  refused 
to  receive  it  as  long  as  he  remained,  and  "  the  four  ser- 
geants were  desired  to  take  some  pains  to  see  what  men 
would  underwrite"  for  the  encouragement  of  Lieut. 
Seeley  to  remain.  At  a  subsequent  meeting,  the  ser- 
geants having  accomplished  but  little,  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen pounds  were  pledged  by  those  present,  and  "  the 
sergeants  were  desired  to  speak  with  those  that   are 


^ 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        1 33 

not  present,  to  see  what  they  will  do."  In  1659  ^tp- 
pears  the  alienation  of  another  house,  after  which  his 
name  disappears  for  a  time  from  the  records,  as  if  he 
were  absent.  In  1662  he  had  "  returned  from  Eng- 
land ; "  and  "  a  motion  was  made  in  his  behalf  for  some 
encouragement  for  his  settling  among  us,"  which,  how- 
ever, was  ineffectual. 

Roger  Ailing  came  to  New  Haven  with  Capt.  Lam- 
berton,  acting  as  steward  during  the  last  half  of  the 
voyage,  the  former  steward  having  died.  Judging  from 
the  wages  allowed,  viz.,  five  pounds  ten  shillings  for 
the  whole  voyage,  one  would  conclude  that  the  vessel 
came  from  a  greater  distance  than  the  Bay.  He  was  at 
this  time  unmarried,  and  of  small  estate.  At  an  early 
date  he  became  a  member  of  the  church  and  of  the 
court.  In  1 66 1  he  was  chosen  treasurer  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion, and  afterward  a  deacon  of  the  church. 

John  Brockett  was  also,  in  1643,  unmarried,  and  of 
even  smaller  estate  than  his  neighbor,  Roger  Ailing. 
Like  him  he  early  became  a  member  of  the  church  and 
of  the  court.  He  was  much  employed  by  the  court,  as 
well  as  by  individuals,  in  his  profession  as  a  surveyor. 

Mr.  Hickock's  lot  probably  lay  next  to  that  of 
Brockett.  Mr.  Crane,  his  agent,  surrendered  it  to  the 
town  in  1641,  the  proprietor  having  relinquished  his 
intention  of  coming  here  to  reside. 

John  Budd,  the  next  proprietor,  signed  the  funda- 
mental agreement  before  it  was  copied  into  the  book, 
and  remained  here  till  he  removed,  about  1646,  to 
Southold,  L.I.,  where  he  acted  a  more  prominent  part 
than  at  New  Haven.  Soon  after  his  removal  he  was 
appointed  a  lieutenant,  and  afterwards  represented  his 


134  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

town  in  the  General  Court  of  the  Jurisdiction.  During 
his  absence  in  England  another  person  was  allowed 
and  desired  to  exercise  the  company ;  the  General  Court 
"  understanding  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  church  of 
Salem,  and,  had  he  letters  of  recommendation,  might  be 
admitted  a  freeman  as  others  are."  But  he  must  take 
the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  jurisdiction :  otherwise  the 
command  must  vest  in  the  corporal  of  the  company. 
Mr.  Budd  sold  his  house  and  lot,  in  New  Haven,  for  a 
hogshead  of  sugar. 

William  Jeanes,  who  lived  at  the  comer  of  Church 
and  Chapel  Streets,  had  been  one  of  the  first  planters, 
but  was  not  admitted  a  freeman  till  1648.  He  sold  this 
corner-lot  the  same  year  to  John  Meggs.'  Some  years 
afterward  he  was  at  Northampton,  whence  he  removed 
to  Northfield  with  its  first  planters,  and,  though  not  an 
ordained  minister,  conducted  the  first  public  Christian 
worship  in  that  town,  preaching  under  an  oak-tree. 

Nicholas  Elsey,  who  received  his  allotment  on  Chapel 
Street,  adjoining  that  of  Mr.  Jeanes,  was  a  cooper  by 
trade.  He  was  present  at  the  ratification  of  the  funda- 
mental agreement  in  Mr.  Newman's  barn,  and  a  few 
years  afterward  was  admitted  a  freeman. 

Richard  Hull,  who  lived  on  Chapel  Street,  between 
Nich9las  Elsey  and  William  Preston,  signed  the  funda- 
mental agreement  at  the  time  when  it  was  established, 
and  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  court  was  admitted  a 

'  Sec  History  of  the  Cutler  Comer,  by  Henry  White,  in  N.  H.  Col. 
Hist.  Soc  Coll.,  vol.  i.  Mr.  White  illustrates  the  relative  inferiority  in 
early  times  of  that  part  of  Chapel  Street  which  lies  between  Church 
Street  and  State  Street,  by  a  quotation  from  the  records  in  which  it  is 
called  "  the  lane  that  leadeth  to  Zuriel  Kimberley's  house.** 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION.       1 35 

freeman,  as  a  member  of  some  other  church  than  that 
of  New  Haven. 

Commencing  the  survey  of  the  south-centre  square, 
we  find  at  its  north-east  corner,  where  the  glebe  build- 
ing now  is,  the  house  of  Thomas  Gregson.  President 
Stiles  records  the  tradition  that  Gregson's  house  was 
one  of  four  which  excelled  in  stateliness  all  other  houses 
erected  in  New  Haven  by  the  first  generation  of  its 
inhabitants ;  the  three  which  he  groups  with  Gregson's 
belonging  respectively  to  Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton,  Mr. 
John  Davenport,  and  Mr.  Isaac  AUerton.'  Gregson 
was  one  of  the  most  honored  men  in  the  community, 
intrusted  with  office  continuously  from  1640  till  he 
embarked  in  1646,  with  a  commission  from  the  Colony 
of  New  Haven  to  obtain,  if  possible,  a  charter  from 
Parliament.  Having  been  a  merchant  in  London,  he 
engaged  in  commerce  after  his  arrival  at  Quinnipiac ; 
and  the  voyage  in  which  he  lost  his  life  was  primarily 
undertaken  for  commercial  ends. 

Next  west  of  Mr.  Gregson  lived  Stephen  Goodyear, 
another  of  the  London  merchants  originally  associated 
together  for  the  commencement  of  a  plantation  in  New 
England.  Here  he  was  engaged  in  foreign  commerce, 
sometimes  in  company  with  Eaton,  Malbon,  and  Greg- 
son, and  sometimes  adventuring  largely  on  his  mdivid- 

'  As  Isaac  Allerton  was  not  here  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  discours- 
ing, it  may  be  appropriate  to  say  that  he  was  one  of  the  voyagers  in  the 
Mayflower,  and,  that  having  fallen  under  censure  at  Plymouth,  on  account 
of  some  commercial  transactions  in  which  he  was  the  agent  of  the  colony, 
he  removed  first  to  Marblehead,  then  a  part  of  Salem,  and  afterward  to 
New  Haven*.  A  lot  was  granted  him  on  the  east  side  of  Union  Street, 
near  Fair  Street,  where  he  built  a  "  grand  house  with  four  porches.*' 


136  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

ual  responsibility.  Having  lost  his  first  wife  in  Lam- 
berton's  ship,  he  married  the  widow  of  Lamberton,  thus 
uniting  two  families  in  one  home  with  advantage  to  the 
children  of  each.  Second  only  to  Eaton  in  the  colonial 
government,  his  absence  in  England  when  Eaton  died 
was  a  sufficient  reason  why  he  was  not  then  advanced 
to  the  chief  magistracy ;  and  his  death  in  London  not 
long  afterward  brought  his  useful  and  honorable  career 
to  an  end. 

The  lot  next  west  of  that  occupied  by  Mr.  Goodyear 
extended  to  College  Street,  and  had  been  assigned  to 
Mr.  Hawkins,  one  of  the  non-resident  proprietors.  He 
seems  to  have  been  a  friend  of  Mr.  Goodyear,  into  whose 
possession  the  land  afterward  passed  when  its  first  pro- 
prietor had  relinquished  his  intention  of  residing  in  New 
Haven. 

Fronting  on  College  Street  was  a  lot  assigned  to 
Samuel  Bailey,  who  did  not  long  remain  in  New  Haven. 
His  allotment  was  purchased  by  William  Davis. 

Fronting  on  George  Street  were  six  lots  belonging 
to  Thomas  Buckingham,  Thomas  Welch,  Jeremiah 
Whitnell,  Richard  Miles,  Nathanael  Axtell,  and  Henry 
Stonhill,  respectively.  Axtell,  "intending  to  go  home, 
died  in  a  few  weeks  before  embarking,  at  Boston."  Of 
the  remaining  five,  four,  namely,  Buckingham,  Welch, 
Miles,  and  Stonhill,  removed  to  Milford  with  the  first 
planters  of  that  town,  leaving  only  Whitnell  on  that 
side  of  the  square.  Deacon  Richard  Miles,  however, 
returned  to  New  Haven  in  1641. 

According  to  the  schedule  of  1641,  the  proprietors 
of  the  south-west  square  were,  at  that  time,  William 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        1 3/ 

Fowler,  Peter  Prudden,  James  Prudden,  Edmond  Tapp, 
Widow  Bal;lwin,  An  Elder,  Richard  Piatt,  Zachariah 
Whitman,  and  Thomas  Osborne.  The  town  records 
show  that  the  lot  reserved  for  an  elder  had  been  origi- 
nally assigned  to  Timothy  Baldwin,  who,  removing  to 
Milford,  sold  his  allotment  to  the  town.  As  no  land 
within  this  square  has  been  traced  to  Thomas  Osborne, 
it  may  be  inferred  that  he  sold  to  Mr.  Fowler  at  an 
early  date,  and  before  a  record  of  alienation  was  re- 
quired. Mr.  Osborne  owned  and  occupied  a  house  and 
tanyard  on  the  south  side  of  George  Street,  between 
Broad  and  Factory  Streets,  doubtless  preferring  this 
location  to  his  original  allotment  because  of  the  facili- 
ties it  afforded  for  his  vocation  as  a  tanner.  He  after- 
ward became  one  of  the  first  planters  of  Easthampton 
on  Long  Island ;  but  this  property,  being  given  to  one 
of  his  sons,  remained  in  the  name  of  Osborne  far  into 
the  nineteenth  century.  With  the  exception  of  Os- 
borne, the  original  grantees  of  this  square  removed  to 
Milford.  As  they  had  all  emigrated  from  Hereford- 
shire, or  its  vicinity,  the  square  was  for  some  years 
designated  as  the  Herefordshire  quarter. 

The  square  next  north  of  that  occupied  exclusively 
by  Prudden  and  his  friends  from  Hereford,  had  been 
assigned  for  the  most  part,  if  not  wholly,  to  the  York- 
shiremen  who  came  with  Ezekiel  Rogers. 

At  the  corner  of  Chapel  and  York  Streets,  a  lot  sur- 
rendered by  Francis  Parrot,  one  of  the  Yorkshiremen 
who  returned  to  Massachusetts  and  settled  at  Rowley, 
was  assigned  by  •vote  of  the  town,  Nov.  3,  1639,  ^^ 
Thomas  James,  who,  having  been  pastor  of  the  church 


138  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  had  resigned  his  charge  and 
come  hither  to  reside.  In  1642,  in  respoi^  to  a  call 
from  Virginia  for  ministers  from  New  England,  Mr. 
James  went  with  two  of  his  clerical  brethren  to  Vir- 
ginia. The  mission  was  unsuccessful,  not  however  for 
want  of  "loving  and  liberal  entertainment,"  but  because 
the  colonial  government  would  not  allow  them  to  remain 
unless  they  woiild  conform  to  the  Church  of  England. 
Mr.  James  afterward  returned  to  the  mother-country, 
and  was  a  beneficed  clergyman  in  Needham,  County  of 
Suffolk,  till  ejected  in  1662  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 

Widow  Greene,  who  owned  the  lot  on  York  Street, 
next  north  of  the  corner-lot  of  Mr.  James,  probably  did 
not  long  remain  at  New  Haven,  as  the  name  does  not 
continue  to  appear  on  the  records. 

Thomas  Yale,  step-son  of  Gov.  Eaton,  owned  the 
next  lot,  but  probably  never  lived  on  it.  Marrying  a 
daughter  of  Capt.  Turner,  he  engaged  in  husbandry,  and 
appears  to  have  made  his  home  at  a  farm  some  miles 
north  of  the  town-plot.' 

Thomas  Fugill,  a  Yorkshireman,  and,  as  we  learn  from 
the  autobiography  of  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard,  a  member, 
before  his  emigration,  of  the  family  of  Sir  Richard 
Darley  at  Buttercrambe,  was  one  of  the  seven  men 
selected  by  the  planters  of  New  Haven  for  their 
"foundation  work."  He  was  also  "notary  public,"  or 
secretary  of  the  plantation,  and  when  a  colonial  govern- 
ment was  instituted  by  the  union  of  New  Haven,  Mil- 

'  Thomas  Yale  has  usually  been  reputed  to  be  the  father  of  Elihu 
Yale,  the  benefactor  of  Yale  College ;  but  Professor  Dexter  has  conclu- 
sively proved  that  Elihu  Yale  was  son  of  David  Yale,  a  brother  of 
Thomas. 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        1 39 

ford,  and  Guilford,  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  juris- 
diction. He  wrote  a  neat,  legible  hand,  and  so  far  forth 
performed  the  work  of  his  office  well ;  but  the  town,  be- 
coixiing  suspicious  of  the  records,  appointed  a  committee 
"  to  view  all  those  orders  which  are  of  a  lasting  nature, 
and  where  they  are  defective,  to  mend  them  and  then 
let  them  be  read  in  the  court  that  the  court  may  con- 
firm or  alter  them  as  they  see  cause."  The  summary 
thus  prepared  is  on  record  in  the  book  kept  by  Fugill. 
Meanwhile  another  committee  was  investigating  the 
result  of  a  false  entry  by  means  of  which  Fugill  had  pos- 
sessed himself  of  fifty-two  acres  and  thirteen  rods  in 
the  second  division  of  lands,  "instead  of  twenty-four 
acres,  his  full  proportion."  When  this  committee  re- 
ported, "  some  of  the  court  and  town  propounded 
whether  it  were  not  requisite  and  necessary  to  choose 
another  secretary,  who  might  more  faithfully  enter  and 
keep  the  town's  records.  The  secretary  confessed  his 
unfitness  for  the  place  by  reason  of  a  low  voice,  a  dull 
ear,  and  slow  apprehensions.  He  was  answered,  the 
court  had  long  taken  notice  of  sundry  miscarriages 
through  weakness  or  neglect,  yet  in  tender  respect  to 
himself  and  his  family,  they  had  continued  him  in  the 
place  (though  with  trouble  to  others) ;  a  review  of  or- 
ders, before  these  offences  brake  out,  being  upon  that 
consideration  thought  necessary  and  ordered.  But  upon 
this  discovery  of  unfaithfulness  and  falsifying  of  orders 
and  records,  they  were  called  to  lay  aside  those  private 
respects  for  the  public  safety.  By  the  court,  therefore 
he  was  presently  put  out  of  his  office  of  secretary  for 
this  plantation."  Unable  to  sustain  himself  under  the 
weight  of  this  punishment  and  of  the  censure  of  the 


I40  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

church  which  followed  it,  he  sold  his  estate,  left 
the  town,  and  probably  returned  to  England. 

John  Punderson,  another  of  the  Yorkshire  company, 
and  also  one  of  the  seven  chosen  for  "  foundation  work," 
was  Fugill's  nearest  neighbor  on  the  north.  Few  men 
of  that  generation  were  so  faithful  in  all  public  duties 
as  entirely  to  avoid  pecuniary  mulct ;  but  there  is  no 
record  of  a  fine  imposed  on  John  Punderson.  A  son 
and  a  grandson,  both  bearing  the  name  of  John,  were 
deacons  in  the  church  which  he  helped  to  institute. 
Another  grandson.  Rev.  Ebenezer  Punderson,  was  one 
of  the  fathers  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut. 

On  the  comer  of  York  and  Elm  Streets  lived  John 
Johnson,  also  of  the  Yorkshire  company,  who  after  a 
few  years  removed  to  Rowley,  selling  his  house  to  his 
brother  Robert,  from  whom  was  descended  Rev.  Samuel 
Johnson,  two  years  younger  than  Ebenezer  Punderson, 
but  earlier  than  he  in  the  ministry  of  the  Episcopal 
Church. 

Corporal  Abraham  Bell  lived  on  Elm  Street,  next  east 
from  Mr.  Johnson's  corner.  In  1647  he  sold  his  estate 
in  New  Haven  to  Job  Hall,  and  removed  to  Charles- 
town,  Mass. 

John  Evance,  who  had  been  a  London  merchant  and 
a  parishioner  of  Mr.  Davenport  at  St.  Stephen's,  had  a 
large  lot  on  the  corner  of  Elm  and  College  Streets,  part 
of  it  being  held  by  him  for  his  brother-in-law,  Mr. 
Mayer,  who  had  not  yet  emigrated,  and,  as  it  proved, 
never  came.  Mr.  Evance,  though  less  active  and  con- 
spicuous in  civil  affairs  than  some  others,  was  inferior 
to  few  or  none  in  commercial  enterprise,  drawing  bills 
of  exchange  on  Mr.  Eldred  for  beaver  and  hides  shipped 


THE  PERSOAWEL   OF   THE  PLANTATION.        I4I 

to  London,  and  sending  shingles  and  clapboards  to  Bar- 
badoes  in  vessels  to  be  freighted  with  sugar  in  return. 

The  lot  on  College  Street,  next  south  of  that  occu- 
pied by  Mr.  Evance,  was  owned  by  a  widow  bearing  the 
Yorkshire  name  of  Constable.  The  question  has  been 
raised,  whether  the  husband  of  this  woman  were  the  Sir 
William  Constable,  who,  according  to  Mather,  proposed 
to  follow  Ezekiel  Rogers  to  New  England.  This  woman 
was  plainly  a  widow,  but  not  the  widow  of  Sir  William. 
Her  husband  was  styled  Mr. ;  her  estate  was  small ; 
she  emigrated  apparently  as  early  as  Rogers,  and  prob- 
ably in  his  company ;  while  Sir  William  did  not  sail 
with  Rogers,  and  could  not  have  come  afterward  with- 
out impressing  on  the  page  of  history  some  notice  of 
his  arrival.  Both  the  name  and  the  location  of  this 
family  suggest  that  they  belonged  to  Rogers's  com- 
pany, and  they  may  have  been  related  to  the  knight 
who  bore  their  family  name.  Mrs.  Constable  after- 
ward became  the  wife  of  Deacon  Richard  Miles. 

On  the  comer  of  College  and  Chapel  Streets  lived 
Joshua  Atwater.  He  was  born  at  Lenham,  County  of 
Kent,  where  he  was  baptized  June  2,  161 2.  Having 
been  a  merchant  in  Ashford,  in  the  same  county,  he 
emigrated  in  the  company  of  Davenport  and  Eaton, 
and  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits,  first  at  New 
Haven,  then  at  Milford,  and  afterward  at  Boston, 
where  he  died  in  1676.  He  was  treasurer  of  the  juris- 
diction till  he  removed  out  of  its  bounds. 

The  lot  on  Chapel  Street,  next  west  of  Mr.  Atwater's, 
was  assigned  to  John  Cockerill,  probably  a  Yorkshire- 
man,  who  built  a  house  thereon,  but  shortly  after  re- 
roovedy  leaving  his  house  and  lands  in  charge  of  Thomas 


142  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Fugill.  The  estate  stands  in  the  name  of  Fugill  in  the 
schedule ;  but  when  after  Fugill's  departure  the  fences 
decayed,  and  the  rates  remained  unpaid,  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  Cockerill  had  never  alienated  and  still 
claimed  it.  Allen  Ball,  a  brother-in-law  of  Fugill,  and 
perhaps  also  related  to  Cockerill,  was  requested  by  the 
town  to  "take  the  house  and  land  and  improve  them 
for  defraying  charges  of  rates  and  fencings ; "  but  he 
declined,  saying  that  "  the  house  was  uncomfortable  to 
live  in."  A  curious  record  in  regard  to  this  property 
was  made  more  than  sixty  years  after  Cockerill  left  it 
in  the  hands  of  Fugill ;  viz.,  — 

"June  20,  1 710.  Capt  Nathan  Andrews  and  Mr.  John  Todd, 
both  of  New  Haven,  testify  and  say  that  upon  their  certain  knowl- 
edge, they  formerly  knew  one  Mr.  John  Fugill  to  be  at  New  Haven 
above  forty  years  since,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the  son  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Fugill  formerly  of  New  Haven,  and  that  he  did  not,  as 
they  know  of,  lay  any  claim  to  the  land  in  New  Haven  that  was 
his  father's." 

Edward  Wigglesworth,  whose  tombstone,  marked  E. 
W.  1653,  was  for  a  time  supposed  to  distinguish  the 
grave  of  Edward  Whalley,  one  of  the  regicide  judges, 
lived  on  the  lot  next  west  of  Mr.  Cockeriirs.  An  auto- 
biographical paper  by  his  son,  Rev.  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  printed  in  the  appendix  to  this  volume,  gives  a 
more  distinct  view  of  Quinnipiac  and  of  one  of  its  fami- 
lies than  any  other  single  document. 

Thomas  Powell  lived  to  old  age  on  the  only  remain- 
ing lot  in  the  Yorkshire  quarter. 

Commencing  the  survey  of  the  north-west  square  at 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        I43 

its  north-west  corner,  we  find  the  comer  occupied  by 
Edward  Tench,,  whose  name  was  at  first  given  to  the 
quarter.  He  died  in  February,  i6|^.  His  wife,  of 
whom  he  speaks  in  his  will  as  "  lying  in  the  house  with 
me,  dangerously  sick  and  near  to  death  by  a  consump- 
tion, so  that  in  the  judgment  of  man  she  draweth  near 
her  change,"  probably  survived  him  for  some  time,  as 
his  will  was  presented  to  the  court  nearly  seven  years 
afterward. 

The  lot  on  Grove  Street,  next  east  from  Mr.  Tench's 
comer,  still  remained,  when  the  schedule  was  written, 
in  the  name  of  Mrs.  Higginson,  though  that  lady  had 
died  a  few  weeks  before  her  neighbor  Mr.  Tench.  She 
was  the  widow  of  Rev.  Francis  Higginson,  the  first 
minister  of  Salem,  and  probably  a  kinswoman  of  the 
Eatons,  as  the  names  Theophilus  and  Samuel  had  been 
given  to  two  of  her  children,  and  one  of  the  children 
was  taken  by  the  governor  into  his  family  after  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Higginson.  In  the  settlement  of  the 
estate,  no  mention  is  made  of  any  house  on  the  home- 
lot ;  but  in  1647  Theophilus  Higginson  sold  to  "Chris- 
topher Todd  his  house  and  home-lot  in  New  Haven 
lying  betwixt  the  lot  now  William  Judson's  and  Mr. 
Tench's.*'  The  inference  is,  that  when  Mrs.  Higgin- 
son died,  the  family  were  still  occupying  a  temporary 
habitation. 

Henry  Browning  lived  on  the  corner  of  Grove  and 
College  Streets.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a 
freeman.  In  1647  he  "sold  to  Goodman  William  Jud- 
son  all  his  real  estate  and  commonage,  together  with  a 
bedstead  and  trundle-bed,  a  pair  of  valance  and  a  piece 
of  blue  darnix,  a  malt  mill,  a  well  bucket  and  chain,  two 


144  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

loads  of  clay  brought  home,  and  the  fence  about  the  lot 
repaired."  His  name  does  not  occur  afterward  on  the 
records. 

Francis  Newman,  the  owner  of  the  next  lot,  was  ad- 
mitted a  freeman  in  1640,  chosen  ensign  of  the  train- 
band in  1642,  lieutenant  of  the  artillery-company  upon 
its  formation  in  1645,  secretary  of  the  plantation  in 
1647,  and  was  finally  advanced  to  the  highest  office  in 
the  jurisdiction,  being  chosen  governor  after  Eaton's 
death. 

John  Caffinch,  whose  lot  lay  next  south  of  Francis 
Newman's,  probably  sailed  direct  from  England  to 
Quinnipiac,  arriving  in  1639  with  the  first  planters  of 
Guilford,  though  not  in  the  same  ship  with  Whitfield. 
He  was  one  of  the  six  principal  men  chosen  to  re- 
ceive from  the  aboriginal  proprietors  of  Guilford  a 
deed  in  trust  for  the  whole  company  of  planters.  For 
some  reason  he  concluded  to  live  at  New  Haven  rather 
than  at  Guilford.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
a  freeman. 

David  Atwater,  a  younger  brother  of  Joshua  Atwater, 
had  a  lot  adjoining  that  of  Mr.  Caffinch,  but  never 
lived  on  it.  He  seems  to  have  become  a  proprietor  at 
a  late  date,  and  to  have  received  his  whole  allotment, 
with  the  exception  of  this  town-lot,  in  the  third  divis- 
ion. It  is  conjectured,  that,  before  he  became  a  pro- 
prietor at  New  Haven,  he  may  have  had  some  thought 
of  joining  the  Kentish  colony  at  Guilford.  His  resi- 
dence in  New  Haven  was  at  his  farm  between  East 
Rock  and  Quinnipiac  River,  where  his  neighbors  were 
Capt.  Turner,  Richard  Mansfield,  and  William  Potter. 
His   town-lot   had  been  previously  assigned  to    John 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        1 45 

Pocock,  who  became  one  of  the  first*  planters  of  Mil- 
ford.  Mr.  Atwater  died  in  1692,  having  outlived  most 
of  the  first  planters. 

Two  lots,  extending  from  Mr.  Atwater's  to  the  cor- 
ner of  College  and  Elm  Streets,  were  reserved  for  non- 
residents named  respectively  Dearmer  and  Lucas. 

On  Elm  Street,  between  Mr.  Lucas's  comer  and  the 
comer  of  Elm  and  York  Streets,  lived  Andrew  Low, 
widow  Williams,  Robert  Hill,  and  William  Thorpe. 

On  York  Street,  between  Mr.  Thorpe's  corner  and 
Mr.  Tench's  comer,  was  a  lot  belonging  to  Jeremiah 
Dixon,  one  of  the  seven  men  chosen  for  foundation 
work.  He  early  removed  from  the  plantation  ;  and,  as 
he  was  unmarried,  there  was  probably  no  house  upon 
his  lot. 

The  only  remaining  square  of  the  eight  which  sur- 
rounded the  market-place  was  occupied  on  Elm  Street 
by  the  lots  of  two  non-residents,  Mr.  Marshall  and  Mrs. 
Eldred,  and  by  the  lot  of  Francis  Brewster.  Mr.  Mar- 
shall has  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  ^ith 
Richard  Mansfield,  who  was  his  representative  and 
agent.  Mrs.  Eldred  was  apparently  a  widow  in  Lon- 
don, and  perhaps  the  mother  of  a  Mr.  Eldred  with 
whom  some  of  the  colonists  had  commercial  corre- 
spondence. As  the  name  occurs  on  the  parish-register 
of  St.  Stephen's,  it  may  be  that  the  family  had  been 
parishioners  of   Mr.  Davenport  in  Coleman  Street. 

Francis  Brewster  was  from  London,  and  one  of  the 
company  which  came  with  Davenport.  He  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  a  freeman.  Mr.  Brewster  having 
been  lost  in  Lamberton's  ship,  and  his  widow  having 


146  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

married  Mr.  PeH  and  removed  to  New  Jersey,  the 
house  and  home-lot  were  sold  to  Mr.  Goodenhouse,  a 
Dutchman,  who  had  married  the  widow  of  Capt. 
Turner. 

Mark  Pearce,  whose  lot  was  on  College  Street  north 
of  Brewster's  comer,  had  lived  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
and  removed  to  New  Haven  as  late  as  1642.  At  a 
general  court  held  Feb.  24,  164I,  "Mr.  Pearce  desired 
the  plantation  to  take  notice,  that  if  any  will  send 
their  children  to  him  he  will  instruct  them  in  writing 
or  arithmetic."  This  was  several  years  before  Mr. 
Cheever  removed,  so  that  Mr.  Pearce's  school,  if  his 
o£Eer  was  accepted,  must  have  been  additional  to  that 
of  Cheever. 

Jarvis  Boykin,  a  carpenter  by  trade,  was  the  next 
proprietor  on  College  Street.  He  came  from  the  town 
of  Charing  in  Kent,  and  hstd  resided  two  or  three  years 
in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  before  he  joined  the  company 
which  settled  at  Quinnipiac. 

Benjamin  Ling  occupied  the  comer  of  College  and 
Grove  Streets.  He  had  removed  from  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  and  was  present  at  the  formation  of  the  funda- 
mental agreement  in  1639.  He  died  in  1673,  com- 
mending his  wife  to  the  care  of  James  Davids,  who  for 
some  years  had  been  an  inmate  of  his  house.  Mr. 
Davids  married  the  widow,  who,  dying  not  long  after 
the  marriage,  left  the  homestead  to  him.  It  was 
known  to  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven  that 
James  Davids  was  an  alias  for  John  Dixwell,  and  that 
this  man  was  one  of  the  regicide  judges.  Marrying  a 
second  wife,  he  became  the  father  of  a  family,  and 
resided  here  many  years,  not   only  unbetrayed,  but 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        1 47 

'tnuch  revered  and  beloved  Here  he  died  in  old  age ; 
^d  his  grave  on  the  green  is  marked,  not  only  by  the 
Tude  stone  bearing  his  initials  which  his  contempora- 
ries placed  there,  but  by  a  marble  monument  erected 
in  later  times. 

On  Grove  Street,  next  east  from  Mr.  Ling's  corner, 
was  the  lot  of  Robert  Newman.  In  his  barn  was  held 
the  meeting  of  planters  at  which  the  fundamental 
agreement  was  adopted,  Mr.  Newman  himself  being 
the  secretary  of  the  meeting.  He  was  elected  ruling 
elder  of  the  church,  and  continued  in  that  office  till  his 
return  to  England.  The  latest  mention  of  him  as 
a  resident  of  New  Haven  is  on  the  eighth  day  of  Octo- 
ber, 1649. 

On  the  east  side  of  Elder  Newman's  lot  was  the  lot 
of  William  Andrews,  a  member  of  the  cKurch  and  of 
the  court  from  the  first.  He  was  a  carpenter  by  trade, 
but  found  time  to  keep  "an  ordinary"  or  house  of 
entertainment  for  strangers. 

John  Cooper  lived  at  the  corner  of  Grove  and 
Church  Streets.  He  was  present  at  the  adoption  of 
the  fundamental  agreement,  and  became  a  freeman  in 
October,  1645,  his  name  being  the  last  but  one  on  the 
list  made  by  Secretary  Fugill.  "John  Cooper  took  oath 
to  be  faithful  to  the  trust  committed  to  him  in  view- 
ing fences  and  pounding  cattle,  according  to  the  court's 
order,  without  partiality  or  respect  of  persons."  In  the 
execution  of  this  trust,  he  was  to  inspect  all  the  fences 
within  the  two  miles  "  once  every  week  if  no  extraordi- 
nary providence  hinder." 

Sergeant    Richard   Beckley,  whose  lot  lay  between 
.  that  of  Mr.  Cooper  and  that  of  Mr.  Marshall,  was  pres- 


148  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

ent  when  the  fundamental  agreement  was  adopted,  and, 
as  his  military  title  implies,  was  a  member  of  the  court. 

Having  now  surveyed  the  eight  squares  which  lay 
around  the  market-place,  let  us  proceed  to  the  two 
suburbs,  and  first  to  that  which  lay  between  the  two 
creeks. 

Sergeant  Samuel  Whitehead  lived  at  the  corner  of 
George  and  Meadow  Streets.  Previous  to  his  residence 
in  New  Haven,  he  had  spent  some  years  in  Massachu- 
setts and  at  Hartford.  By  the  marriage  of  his  grand- 
daughter his  homestead  passed  into  the  family  of  Hub- 
bard, and  so  continued  for  nearly  two  centuries. 

John  Clark,  who  lived  on  Meadow  Street  next  south 
of  Mr.  Whitehead,  was  interpreter  when  the  Montowese 
Indians  sold  their  land  to  the.  English.  He  had  lived 
about  four  years  in  Massachusetts  before  he  came  to 
Quinnipiac  with  its  first  planters. 

Of  Luke  Atkinson,  the  next  proprietor  on  Meadow 
Street,  little  is  known  but  that  he  dared  to  quarrel  with 
Mr.  Davenport,  and, .  being  charged  with  slander,  was 
fined  forty  pounds.  He  removed  from  New  Haven  in 
1656. 

Edward  Banister  died  in  1649,  and  his  lot  passed  into 
other  hands.  Another  lot  which  lay  between  State 
Street  and  the  East  Creek  was  granted  to  his  widow 
by  the  town,  on  which  she  built  a  house. 

John  Moss,  though  by  no  means  a  wealthy  man,  gave 
his  son  Joseph  a  liberal  education,  and  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  him  settled  in  the  ministry  at  Derby.  In  his 
old  age  John  Moss  removed  to  Wallingford,  where  he 
died  in  1707,  aged  one  hundred  and  three  years. 


THE  PERSONNEL    OF  THE  PLANTATION,        I49 

John  Charles,  a  brother-in-law  of  John  Moss,  had 
lived  some  years  in  Massachusetts.  He  was  a  sea- 
faring man,  and  removed  first  to  Branford  and  after- 
ward to  Saybrook. 

Richard  Beach  removed  to*  New  London. 

Arthur  Halbidge  came  from  England  to  Boston  in 
1635.     He  died  in  1648. 

William  Peck  crossed  the  Atlantic  with  Davenport 
and  Elaton.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  merchant  in 
London ;  but  the  tradition  is  not  easily  reconciled 
with  his  estimate  of  his  estate,  which  he  put  into  the 
list  at  twelve  pounds.  Though  not  wealthy,  he  was 
much  respected  in  the  plantation,  as  appears  from  his 
election  as  a  deacon  of  the  church. 

Timothy  Ford,  whose  lot  was  at  the  corner  of  Mead- 
ow and  Water  Streets,  had  lived  in  Massachusetts. 

Peter  Brown,  at  a  court  holden  Feb.  5,  i6|^,  was 
"licensed  to  bake  to  sell,  so  long  as  he  gives  no  offence 
in  it  justly."     He  afterward  removed  to  Stamford. 

Daniel  Paul,  whose  lot  was  at  the  corner  of  Water 
and  State  Streets,  soon  disappeared  from  the  planta- 
tion ;  and  his  lot  came  into  the  possession  of  William 
Westerhouse,  a  Dutch  merchant.  July  3,  1655,  John 
Thompson  "bought,  at  an  outcry,  the  house  and  lot,  and 
lands  which  belong  to  it,  which  was  Mr.  Westerhouse's, 
for  .£40.05,  which  was  thus  sold  by  order  of  the  court.** 
About  a  month  afterward  the  purchaser  sold  to  John 
Hodson  "the  house  he  bought  of  the  court,  which  was 
Mr.  Westerhouse's,  and  the  land  which  belongs  to  it, 
and  Mr.  Hodson  is  to  pay  the  court  for  it,  £40.05." 

John  Livermore,  who  lived  on  State  Street,  next 
north  of  Goodman   Paul's  corner,  came  to  Massachu- 


I50  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

setts  from  Ipswich,  England,  in  1634.  He  signed  the 
fundamental  agreement  after  it  had  been  copied  into 
the  record-book. 

Henry  Rutherford  died  in  1668 :  his  widow  married 
William  Leete,  Governor  of  the  Colony  of  New  Haven 
and  afterwards  Governor  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut. 

Thomas  Trowbridge  was  from  Taunton  or  its  vicinity, 
in  *the  county  of  Somerset.  He  was  a  merchant,  trad- 
ing to  Barbadoes. 

The  lots  of  widow  Potter  atld  John  Potter  passed  at 
an  early  date  into  the  possession  of  Allen  Ball,  though 
there  is  no  record  of  the  transfer. 

Passing  now  to  the  suburb  on  the  west  side  of  West 
Creek,  we  find,  on  the  comer  made  by  the  streets  now 
named  Hill  Street  and  Congress  Avenue,  the  lot  of 
William  Ives.  He  died  in  1648,  leaving  a  wife  and 
four  children.  William  Basset  married  the  widow ;  and 
the  family  continued  to  reside  in  the  house  till  it  was 
sold,  in  1652,  to  the  widow  of  Anthony  Thompson. 

The  next  lot  fronting  on  Hill  Street  was  assigned  to 
George  Smith,  who  in  1655  sold  his  house  and  home- 
lot  to  Timothy  Ford.  He  describes  the  premises  as 
lying  between  the  house  that  was  Matthew  Canfield's 
and  that  which  was  William  Ives's. 

The  lot  thus  described  as  having  belonged  to  Mat- 
thew Canfield  must  have  been,  if  the  order  of  the  sched- 
ule is  to  be  followed,  the  property  of  widow  Sherman 
before  Matthew  Canfield  acquired  it.  "An  inventory 
and  will  of  old  father  Sherman  was  delivered  into  the 
court  "  in  May,  1641,  and  soon  afterward  the  name  of 
(Campfield)  Canfield  first  appears. 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION        151 

These  three  are  all  of  the  lots  in  the  suburb  on  the 
west  side  of  the  West  Creek  that  can  be  located.  The 
other  proprietors  in  this  suburb  were  Matthew  Moul- 
throp,  Anthony  Thompson,  John  Reeder,  Robert  Cogs- 
well, Matthias  Hitchcock, '  Francis  Hall,  Richard  Os- 
borne, William  Potter,  James  Clark,  Edward  Patteson, 
and  Andrew  Hull. 

As  the  schedule  assigns  nothing  to  Matthew  Moul- 
throp,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  acquired  a  complete 
title  to  a  lot  in  this  quarter. 

Anthony  Thompson  died  about  ten  years  after  the 
first  settlement  of  the  town.  His  widow  married  Nich- 
olas Camp  of  Milford.  As  one  of  his  two  brothers  was 
childless,  and  the  other  had  only  daughters,  he  is  proba- 
bly the  ancestor  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  in  New  Haven  who 
bear  the  name  of  Thompson.* 

The  name  of  John  Reeder  is  not  found  in  any  record 
later  than  the  schedule  of  1641.  The  name  of  Robert 
Cogswell  disappears  about  the  same  time.  At  that 
early  day  alienations  were  not  always  recorded ;  and, 
unless  it  has  escaped  a  very  close  scrutiny,  there  is  no 
record  of  the  sale  of  their  lots  by  these  two  proprie- 
tors. 

The  names  of  Matthias  Hitchcock,  Francis  Hall,  and 
Richard  Osborne  follow  next  in  the  schedule.  They 
all  remained  long  in  the  town,  and  probably  died  here. 
"  Matthias  Hitchcock  passeth  over  to  John  Wakefield 
his  house  and  home-lot  on  the  other  side  of  the  West 

*  There  was  another  Thompson  at  Fairfield,  contemporary  with  An- 
thony of  New  Haven.  Possibly,  from  that  source  or  some  other,  Thomp- 
sons may  have  removed  to  New  Haven,  and  become  undistinguishably 
mixed  with  the  descendants  of  Anthony. 


152  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Creek,"  Feb.  6,  1655.  Richard  Osborne  was  a  tanner 
by  trade,  and  the  coincidence  of  name  and  occupa- 
tion suggests  that  he  was  a  brother  of  Thomas  Os- 
borne. 

William  Potter  removed  from  his  town-lot,  if  he  ever 
built  a  house  on  it,  to  his  farm  on  the  west  side  of 
Quinnipiac  River.  After  having  been  for  many  years  a 
church-member,  he  was  accused  of  bestiality,  and  upon 
his  own  confession  was  condemned  to  death  and  exe- 
cuted. 

James  Clark  removed  to  the  north  part  of  the  town, 
and  afterward  to  Stratford. 

The  name  of  Edward  Patteson  does  not  occur  after 
1646. 

Andrew  Hull  died  in  1643,  and  his  widow  became 
the  wife  of  Richard  Beach. 

Besides  the  home-lots  assigned  to  proprietors,  thirty- 
two  "small  lots"  had  been  freely  given  to  as  many 
householders,  before  the  second  division  of  out-lands 
was  made.  The  records  furnish  a  list  of  these  house- 
holders having  no  right  of  commonage,  in  the  order 
in  which  they  were  drawn  by  lot  for  the  choice  of  the 
out-lands  allowed  them  in  the  second  division.  Seven 
of  them  dwelt  on  "the  bank-side,"  that  is,  on  East 
Water  Street  and  east  of  the  four  proprietors  whose 
land  extended  from  Union  Street  to  Chestnut  Street ; 
the  other  twenty-five  had  their  homes  between  George 
Street  and  the  West  Creek.  The  seven  on  the  bank- 
side  were  William  Russell,  Francis  Brown,  Thomas 
Morris,  Nathaniel  Merriman,  Robert  Pigg,  Thomas 
Beamont,  and  William  Gibbons. 


THE  PERSONNEL   OF  THE  PLANTATION.       1 53 

The  whole  catalogue  reads  thus,  viz.,  — 

1.  Stephen  MetcalL  17.  Francis  Brown. 

2.  Adam  Nicolls.  George  Larrymore. 

3.  Nathaniel  Merriman.  Thomas  Beamont 

4.  John  Thompson.  Thomas  Leaver. 

5.  Brother  Kimberly's  brother.         John  Vincent 
d.  John  Nash.  John  Hall. 

7.  Mrs.  Swinerton.  William  Russell. 

8.  Goodman  Davis.  Christopher  Todd. 
^  Richard  Newman.  Thomas  Munson. 

Thomas  Mitchel.  Benjamin  Wilmot 

Thomas  Morris.  John  Walker. 

Goodman  Peck.  Benjamin  Pauling. 

Another  lot.  A  brickmaker. 

Goodman  Hames.  Obadiah  Barnes. 

Goodman  Dayton.  Elizabeth,  the  washer. 

Goodman  Pigg.  William  Gibbons. 

In  estimating  the  population  of  New  Haven  at  this 
period,  one  must  take  into  account  not  only  proprietors 
and  householders,  but  indentured  and  hired  servants. 
The  records  show  that  both  these  classes  were  numer- 
ous. The  families  of  the  proprietors  contained  four 
hundred  and  twenty  souls,  counting  only  their  wives  and 
children  with  themselves.  Deducting  those  who  never 
left  England,  and  those  who  removed  to  Milford,  and 
adding  the  families  to  which  lots  had  been  freely  given, 
we  have  by  equal  ratio  a  population  of  about  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty.  But  the  houses  of  the  Milford  people 
were  not  all  empty.  Some  of  them  were  hired  and 
occupied  by  persons  who  did  not  care  to  become  pro- 
prietors. The  number  of  dependents  of  one  kind  and 
another  attached  to  all  these  families  must  have  nearly 


154  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

equalled,  and  perhaps  it  exceeded,  the  census  returned 
by  the  proprietors.  Gov.  Eaton  returns  only  six ;  but 
his  family  is  said  to  have  contained  thirty  persons.  In 
no  other  family  was  there  so  large  a  proportion  of 
ser\'ants ;  but  there  was  scarcely  a  householder  whose 
family  was  limited  to  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children. 
Artisans  and  farmers  had  young  men  and  boys  in  their 
employ,  and  maid-servants  were  to  be  found  in  almost 
every  household. 

If  on  the  basis  of  these  facts  we  estimate  the  whole 
number  of  souls  in  the  plantation  at  eight  hundred,  con- 
firmation of  such  an  estimate  is  found  in  the  military 
census,  which  after  the  elders,  deacons,  magistrates, 
deputies,  physicians,  military  officers  of  a  higher  grade 
than  sergeants,  the  schoolmaster,  the  miller,  and  mas- 
ters of  vessels  carrying  more  than  fifteen  tons  were 
exempted,  provided  thirty-one  watches,  each  consisting 
of  seven  men,  out  of  the  male  population  between  six- 
teen and  sixty  years  of  age.  If  there  were  two  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  men  liable  to  this  duty,  and  thirty 
more  who  were  exempt,  the  entire  population  could  not 
have  been  much  less  than  eight  hundred' 

'  The  Dutch  authorities  at  New  Amsterdam  reported  to  their  supe- 
riors in  Holland  that  Rodenbergh,  or  New  Haven,  contained,  eleven  years 
after  it  was  founded,  about  1,340  families.  But,  though  affirmed  of  New 
Haven  tov^ii,  it  must  have  been,  I  think,  their  informant's  estimate  of  the 
population  of  the  colony. 


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CHAPTER  IX. 

MILFORD.  —  GUILFORD.  — SOUTHOLD.  — STABfFORD. 

BENJAMIN  FENN,  Thomas  Buckingham,  Thomas 
Welch,  Richard  Miles,  Henry  Stonhill,  William 
Fowler,  Peter  Prudden,  James  Prudden,  Edmund  Tapp, 
Timothy  Baldwin,  Richard  Piatt,  and  Zachariah  Whit- 
man were  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter  as  having  re- 
moved to  Milford.  Other  persons  from  New  Haven 
who  engaged  with  them  in  commencing  a  new  planta- 
tion were  John  Pocock,  Thomas  Tibbals,  John  Fowler, 
Richard  Baldwin,  Nathanael  Baldwin,  Joseph  Baldwin, 
and  John  Baldwin.  The  four  last  named  were  perhaps 
sons  of  the  widow  Baldwin,  who  was  one  of  the  pro- 
prietors in  the  Herefordshire  quarter  at  New  Haven. 
To  these  was  added  a  company  from  Wethersfield,  who, 
with  perhaps  a  few  from  other  places,  increased  the 
number  of  planters  commencing  the  settlement  at 
Milford  to  fifty-four. 

Before  their  removal  to  Milford,  a  church  had  been 
organized  by  them  at  New  Haven  on  the  twenty-second 
day  of  August,  1639,  the  day  when  the  New  Haven 
church  was  constituted,  or,  as  Mather  reports  it,  one  day 
later.  The  same  method  of  organization  was  adopted 
by  the  people  who  were  to  remove  to  Milford  as  by 
their  brethren  who  were  to  remain  at   New  Haven. 

«55 


156  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

They  chose  seven  men  for  the  foundation,  and  these 
admitted  others.  The  names  of  the  seven  were  Peter 
Prudden,  William  Fowler,  Edmund  Tapp,  Zachariah 
Whitman,  John  Astwood,  Thomas  Buckingham,  and 
Thomas  Welch.  Six  of  them  had  been  resident  at 
New  Haven ;  and  one,  viz.,  John  Astwood,  had  resided 
at  Wethersfield. 

The  town  records  begin  with  a  list  of  forty-four  per- 
sons "  allowed  to  be  free  planters,  having  for  the  pres- 
ent, liberty  to  act  in  the  choice  of  public  officers  for 
carrying  on  of  public  affairs  in  this  plantation."  The 
list  was  prepared  in  accordance  with  an  order  passed 
at  the  first  general  court  of  the  planters  held  in  Mil- 
ford  on  the  20th  of  November,  1639,  at  which  it  was 
"voted  and  agreed  that  the  power  of  electing  officers 
and  persons  to  divide  the  land  into  lots,  to  take  order 
for  the  timber,  and  to  manage  the  common  interests 
of  the  plantation,  should  be  in  the  church  only,  and 
that  the  persons  so  chosen  should  be  only  from  among 
themselves." 

At  the  same  court  other  orders  were  passed,  as  fol- 
lows :  viz.,  — 

That  they  would  guide  themselves  in  all  their  do- 
ings by  the  written  word  of  God,  till  such  time  as  a 
body  of  laws  should  be  established ; 

That  five  men  should  be  chosen  for  judges  in  all 
civil  affairs,  to  try  all  causes  between  man  and  man, 
and  as  a  court  to  punish  any  offence  and  misdemeanor ; 

That  the  persons  invested  with  the  magistracy 
should  have  power  to  call  a  general  court  whenever 
they  might  see  cause,  or  the  public  good  require ; 

That  they  should  hold  particular  courts  once  in  six 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD.    1 57 

weeks,  wherein  should  be  tried  such  causes  as  might  be 
brought  before  them,  they  to  examine  witnesses  upon 
oath  as  need  should  require  ; 

That,  according  to  the  sum  of  money  which  each 
person  paid  toward  the  public  charges,  in  such  propor- 
tion should  he  receive  or  be  repaid  in  lands,  and  that 
all  planters  who  might  ^^.x^^  come  after  should  pay 
their  share  equally  for  \  \^  \  some  other  public  use  ; 

That  the  town  seal  \  /  should  be  the  letters 
M  and  F  joined  thus :       >/ 

The  court  then  proceeded  to  choose  for  judges,  Wil- 
liam Fowler,  Edmund  Tapp,  Zachariah  Whitman,  John 
Astwood,  and  Richard  Miles,  to  continue  in  office  till 
the  next  court  of  election,  to  be  holden  the  first  week 
in  October. 

It  appears  from  this  action  taken  at  their  first  general 
court,  that  the  planters  of  Milford,  like  those  of  New 
Haven,  allowed  the  right  of  suffrage  to  church-mem- 
bers only,  and  that  forty-four  of  them  out  of  fifty-four 
were  at  first  possessed  of  this  qualification.  This  was 
a  much  larger .  proportion  than  at  New  Haven,  where 
a  great  majority  of  the  planters  not  possessing  this 
qualification,  though  "  having  a  purpose,  resolution,  and 
desire  that  they  may  be  admitted  into  church-fellow- 
ship according  to  Christ  as  soon  as  God  shall  fit  them 
thereunto,"  voluntarily  deprived  themselves  of  the  right 
of  suffrage  till  they  should  become  thus  qualified. 
One  might  easily  believe  that  Milford,  where  so  great 
a  majority  of  the  planters  were  church-members,  would 
adhere  to  the  rule  once  established,  longer  than  New 
Haven ;  but  in  truth  Milford  within  three  years,  and 
perhaps  in  much  less  time,  admitted  six  of  the  ten  who 


158  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

had  been  excluded,  to  be  free  burgesses  while  they  were 
not  church-members.  On  second  thought  one  will  con- 
clude that  the  smallness  of  the  minority  was  in  itself 
a  reason  why  the  rule  was  changed.  Perhaps,  when 
four  of  the  ten  had  become  members  of  the  church 
and  of  the  court,  the  absurdity  of  apprehending  any 
evil  from  the  admission  of  the  remaining  six  to  equal 
political  rights  was  an  irresistible  appeal  to  the  majority 
to  change  the  rule.  There  may  have  been  less  objec- 
tion to  the  change  for  the  reason  that  the  rule  was  not, 
as  at  New  Haven,  a  fundamental  law,  but  subject  to 
repeal  by  a  majority  of  votes,  like  the  common  orders 
of  the  court.  Indeed,  the  heading  of  the  list  of  the 
forty-four  reads  as  if  there  were  some  doubt  at  the  time 
whether  the  exclusion  of  the  ten  would  be  permanent 
It  is  a  list  of  persons  "  having  for  the  present^  liberty 
to  act  in  the  choice  of  public  officers." 

At  the  second  general  court,  held  March  9,  1640,  "  it 
was  agreed  between  William  Fowler  and  the  brethren 
(the  five  judges),  that  he  should  build  a  mill,  and  have 
her  going  by  the  last  of  September,  when  the  town 
were  to  take  it  off  his  hands,  if  they  saw  proper,  for 
one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds ;  or  else  the  brethren 
were  to  appoint  what  toll  he  should  take."  "It  was 
( says  Lambert )  the  first  mill  erected  in  New  Haven 
colony."  The  high  estimation  in  which  it  was  held 
by  the  planters  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  when  it 
had  been  injured  by  a  freshet,  they  voted  in  a  general 
court  held  in  December,  1645,  that  all  the  town  should 
help  Mr.  Fowler  repair  the  mill,  and  he  was  to  call  for 
them,  each  man  a  day,  till  he  should  have  gone  through 
the  town,  whenever  he  needed  help.     "  If  he  went  not 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,    159 

through  the  town  in  one  year,  the  same  liberty  was 
granted  till  he  had  gone  through." 

Until  this  time  the  plantation  had  been  called  by 
its  Indian  name  of  Wepowaug ;  but  at  a  general  court 
held  Nov.  24,  1640,  "with  common  consent  and  gen- 
eral vote  of  the  freemen,  the  plantation  was  named 
Milford."  The  letters  in  the  town  seal  indicate,  how- 
ever, that  the  name  of  Milford  had  been  chosen  at  an 
earlier  date,  and  that  this  formal  action  wds  taken  for 
the  purpose  of  superseding  the  Indian  name. 

A  record  of  home-lots  was  made  in  1646,  from  which 
a  map  of  the  town-plot  can  be  drawn,  showing  the 
names  of  all  who  were  proprietors  at  that  time,  and  the 
relative  position  of  their  dwellings  ;  for  as  every  planter 
was  required  to  erect  a  good  house  within  three  years, 
or  forfeit  his  lot,  it  may  be  presumed  that  nearly  all  to 
whom  home-lots  were  recorded  in  1646  had  complied 
with  this  condition.  The  number  of  proprietors  had 
by  this  time  increased  to  sixty-six.  The  map  opposite 
page  15s  was  enlarged  from  Lambert's  History  of  the 
Colony  of  New  Haven.  It  exhibits  the  line  of  pali- 
sades which  enclosed  the  whole  settlement,  and  the 
arrangement  of  the  home-lots  on  both  sides  of  Mill 
River  and  of  West  End  Brook.  A  footway  across  the 
field,  such  as  is  often  seen  in  England,  led  from  the 
West  End  to  the  meeting-house,  "the  stiles  to  be 
maintained  by  brother  Nicholas  Camp  at  the  West 
End  and  by  brother  Thomas  Baker  at  the.  meeting- 
house (for  the  outside  stiles) ;  and  for  the  inner  fences, 
each  man  shall  maintain  his  stile  in  the  most  con- 
venient place ;  and  the  passage  over  Little  Dreadful 
Swamp  in  John  Fletcher's  lot,  shall  be  by  a  long  log 
hewed  on  the  upper  side." 


l6o  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

In  the  allotment  of  out-lands,  a  course  was  taken 
similar  to  that  taken  at  New  Haven.  "In  the  first 
division  abroad"  a  tract  lying  south  of  the* town  and 
east  of  Mill  River  was  assigned  to  the  planters  whose 
home-lots  fronted  on  that  river,  and  was  called  East- 
field.  Another  tract  west  of  the  same  river  was  al- 
lotted to  the  planters  whose  houses  fronted  on  West 
End  Brook,  and  was  called  Westfield.  Each  of  these 
fields,  or  quarters  as  they  would  have  been  called  in 
New  Haven,  being  subdivided  among  the  proprietors 
according  to  the  estates  they  had  respectively  reported 
for  taxation,  was  enclosed  with  a  fence,  to  the  expense 
of  which  each  proprietor  contributed  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  tis  acres.  Meadow-land  was  also  allot- 
ted to  each  planter  in  proportion  to  his  estate.  Sev- 
eral divisions  of  upland  subsequently  made,  were  con- 
ducted according  to  the  same  rule. 

We  have  already  observed  that  a  few  families  from 
Kent,  moved  by  the  change  which  took  place  in  eccle- 
siastical administration  when  Laud  succeeded  Abbot, 
had  emigrated  in  the  company  of  Mr.  Davenport. 
These  were  the  earnest  of  a  company  from  Kent,  Sur- 
rey, and  Sussex,  which  came  two  years  later,  and  settled 
in  Guilford.  That  the  two  companies  were  connected, 
and  that  they  were  in  communication  after  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Davenport  at  Quinnipiac,  appears  from  the  fact 
that  Mr.  Whitfield  sailed  direct  for  Quinnipiac,  and 
that  Mr.  Davenport's  only  child,  whom  his  parents  had 
left  behind  on  account  of  his  tender  years,  came  with 
his  nurse  in  the  same  ship,  as  also  from  the  covenant 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,    l6l 

which  Mr.  Whitfield's  company  made  and  signed  on 
shipboard.'     The  covenant  was  as  follows  :  — 

"  We,  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  intending  by  God's 
gracious  permission  to  plant  ourselves  in  New  England,  and,  if  it 
may  be,  in  the  southerly  part,  about  Quinnipiac :  We  do  faithfully 
promise  each  to  each,  for  ourselves  and  families,  and  those  that 
belong  to  us;  that  we  will,  the  Lord  assisting  us,  sit  down  and 
join  ourselves  together  in  one  entire  plantation ;  and  to  be  helpful 
each  to  the  other  in  every  common  work,  according  to  every  man's 
ability  and  as  need  shall  require ;  and  we  promise  not  to  desert  or 
leave  each  other  or  the  plantation,  but  with  the  consent  of  the 
rest  or  the  greater  part  of  the  company  who  have  entered  into  this 
engagement. 

"  As  for  our  gathering  together  in  a  church  way,  and  the  choice 
of  officers  and  members  to  be  joined  together  in  that  way,  we  do 
refer  ourselves  until  such  time  as  it  shall  please  God  to  settle  us 
in  our  plantation. 

"  In  witness  whereof  we  subscribe  our  hands  the  first  day  of 
June,  1639. 

"Robert  Kitchel.  Wm.  Dudley. 

John  Bishop.  John  Parmelin. 

Francis  Bushnell.    ^  John  Mepham. 

William  Chittenden.  Henry  Whitfield. 

William  Leete.  Thomas  Norton. 

Thomas  Jones.  Abraham  Cruttenden. 

John  Jordan.  Francis  Chatfield. 

William  Stone.  William  Hall. 

John  Hoadley.  Thomas  Nash. 

John  Stone.  Henry  Kingsnorth. 

William  Plane.  Henry  Dowd. 

Richard  Gutridge.  Thomas  Cook." 
John  Hughes. 

The  exact  time  when  Mr.  Whitfield  and  his  fellow- 
voyagers  arrived  in  the  harbor  of  Quinnipiac  cannot  be 

'  Inquiry  for  the  autograph  of  this  covenant  has  been  unsuccessful. 


1 62  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

ascertained ;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  they  were 
near  the  end  of  their  voyage  when  they  signed  the 
above  agreement,  three  days  previous  to  the  meeting 
of  the  New  Haven  planters  in  Mr.  Newman's  bam, 
when  permanent  foundations  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
order  were  laid.  It  is  here  given  as  found  in  the  "  His- 
<  tory  of  Guilford  "  by  Ralph  D.  Smith.  Under  date  of 
"Quinnipiac,  July  28,  1639/*  Mr.  Davenport  writes  to 
his  friend  Lady  Vere  :  — 

•*  Madam,  —  By  the  good  hand  of  our  God  upon  us,  my  dear 
child  is  safely  arrived  with  sundry  desirable  friends,  as  Mr.  Fen- 
wick  and  his  lady,  Mr.  Whitfield,  &c.,  to  our  great  comfort. 

"Their  passage  was  so  ordered,  as  it  appeared  that  prayers 
were  accepted.  For  they  had  no  sickness  in  the  ship  except  a 
little  sea-sickness;  not  one  died,  but  they  brought  to  shore  one 
more  than  was  known  to  be  in  the  vessel  at  their  coming  forth,  for 
a  woman  was  safely  delivered  of  a  child,  and  both  were  alive  and 
well.  They  attained  to  the  haven  where  they  would  be,  in  seven 
weeks.  Theu*  provisions  at  sea  held  good  to  the  last  About  the 
time  when  we  guessed  they  might  approach  near  us,  we  set  a  day 
apart  for  public  extraordinary  Jjumiliation  by  fasting  and  prayer,  in 
which  we  commended  them  into  the  hands  of  our  God  whom  winds 
♦  and  seas  obey,  and  shortly  after  sent  out  a  pinnace  to  pilot  them  to 
our  harbor :  for  it  was  the  first  ship  that  ever  cast  anchor  in  this 
place.  But  our  pilot,  having  waited  for  them  a  fortnight,  grew 
weary  and  returned  home ;  and  the  very  next  night  after,  the  ship 
came  in,  guided  by  God's  own  hand  to  .our  town.  The  sight  of  the 
harbor  did  so  please  the  captain  of  the  ship  and  all  the  passengers, 
that  he  called  it  the  Fair  Haven.  Since  that,  another  ship  hath 
brought  sundry  passengers,  and  a  third  is  expected  daily." 

It  appears  from  this  letter  that  Mr.  Whitfield's  com- 
pany did  not  all  come  in  one  ship.  The  signers  of  the 
agreement  are  twenty-five  in  number,  of  whom,  one,  and 
perhaps  two,  did  not  settle  at  Guilford.     Thomas  Nash, 


MILFORD,  GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,    163 

being  a  smith  competent  to  repair  guns  as  well  as  to  do 
general  work  in  the  line  of  his  trade,  became  a  planter 
at  New  Haven,  and  is  third  in  the  list  of  those  who 
signed  the  fundamental  agreement  after  it  was  copied 
into  the  record-book.  The  reasons  why  he  should 
reside  in  the  larger  plantation  were  so  weighty  that 
his  fellow-passengel's  doubtless  released  him  from  his 
agreement.  The  name  of  John  Hughes  not  appearing 
/  on  the  earliest  record  of  planters  at  Guilford,  it  may  be 

conjectured  that  he  died  at  an  early  date,  or  was  diverted 
from  that  to  some  other  plantation. 

As  the  first  ship  brought  only  twenty-three  of  the 
first  planters  of  Guilford,  we  must  conclude  that  the 
others  arrived  in  the  second  or  in  the  second  and  third 
ships  mentioned  in  Mr.  Davenport's  letter.  If  the  first 
ship  arrived  in  June,  the  second  early  in  July,  and  the 
third '  ^oon  after  the  date  of  the  letter,  we  may  conclude 
that  only  preliminary  steps  were  taken  for  selecting  a 
site  previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  last  division  of  their 
company.  Soon  after  all  had  arrived,  a  meeting  was 
held  in  Mr.  Newman's  barn,  which  is  thus  alluded  to 
in  the  "  Guilford  Book  of  the  more  fixed  Orders  for  the 
Plantation." 

"January  31st  1649  (N.  S.  1650). 

"  Upon  a  review  of  the  more  fixed  agreements,  laws  and  orders 
formerly  and  from  time  to  time  made,  The  General  Court  here  held 
the  day  and  year  aforesaid  thought  fit,  agreed  and  established  them 

'  It  is  a  reasonable  conjectuie  that  the  third  ship  brought  the  company 
which  settled  Southold  on  Long  Island.  As  the  first  vessel  is  known  to 
have  brought  about  half  of  the  Guilford  families,  the  second  would  prob- 
ably be  sufficient  for  the  transportation  of  the  remainder.  The  third  ves- 
sel sufficiently  accounts  for  the  presence  at  New  Haven  of  the  Southold 
Company,  a  problem  which,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  no  one  has 
attempted  to  solve. 


/ 


\ 


\ 


164  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

according  to  the  ensuing  draft,  as  followeth,  viz^  —  first  we  do  ac- 
knowledge, ratify,  confirm  and  allow  the  agreement  made  in  Mr. 
Newman^s  bam »  at  Quillipeack,  now  called  New  Haven,  that  the 
whole  lands  called  Menunkatuck  should  be  purchased  for  us  and 
our  heirs,  but  the  deed-writings  thereabouts  to  be  made  and  drawn 
(from  the  Indians)  in  the  name  of  these  six  planters  in  our  steads, 
viz.,  Henry  Whitfield,  Robert  Kitchel,  William  Leete,  William  Chit- 
tenden, John  Bishop  and  John  Cafidnge ;  notwithstanding  all  and 
every  planter  shall  pay  his  proportionable  part  or  share  towards  all 
the  charges  and  expenses  for  purchasing,  selling,  securing  or  carry- 
ing  on  the  necessary  public  affairs  of  this  plantation  according  to 
such  rule  and  manner  of  rating  as  shall  be  from  time  to  time 
agreed  on  in  this  plantation.'' 

According  to  this  agreement  made  in  Mr.  Newman's 
bam,  a  purchase  was  made  from  Shaumpishuh,  the 
sachem  squaw  of  Menunkatuck,  which  is  defined  in 
the  following  deed :  — 

"  Articles  of  agreement  made  and  agreed  on  the  29th  of  September, 
1639,  between  Henry  Whitfield,  Robert  Kitchel,  William  Chit- 
tenden, Wm.  Leete,  John  Bishop  and  Jno.  Caffinch,  English 
planters  of  Menunkatuck,  and  the  sachem  squaw  of  Menunka- 
tuck together  with  the  Indian  inhabitants  of  Menunkatuck  as 
followeth : 

"  First,  that  the  sachem  squaw  is  the  sole  owner,  possessor  and 
inheritor  of  all  the  lands  lying  between  Ruttawoo  and  Ajicomick 
river. 

"  Secondly,  that  the  said  sachem  squaw  with  the  consent  of  the 
Indians  there  inhabiting  (who  are  all,  together  with  herself,  to  re- 
move from  thence)  doth  sell  unto  the  foresaid  English  planters  all 
the  lands  lying  within  the  aforesaid  limits  of  Ruttawoo  and  Ajico- 
mick river. 

"  Thirdly,  that  the  said  sachem  squaw  having  received  twelve 

*  This  was  a  meeting  of  the  newly  arrived  Guilford  planters,  and  should 
not  be  confounded  with  the  earlier  meeting  of  New  Haven  planters  on  the 
fourth  day  of  June. 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD.    16$ 

coatSy  twelve  fathom  of  wampum,  twelve  glasses,  twelve  pairs  of 

shoes,  twelve  hatchets,  twelve  pairs  of  stockings,  twelve  hoes, 

four  kettles,  twelve  knives,  twelve  hats,  twelve  porringers,  twelve 

spoons,  two  English  coats,  professeth  herself  to  be  fully  paid  and 

satisfied." 

,, ,         ,,  ^  (  Sachem  Squaw,    her  mark. 

"John  Higginsok  J  ^.^^^^^^^     \  ^^^^^  whitf.eld,  in  i)u 

RoBT.  Newman    j  \  ^  ^i.        ^» 

^  {^     name  of  the  rest. 

Additional  territory  was  afterward  purchased  of  other 
Indians;  but  the  aforesaid  deed  covers  all  the  land 
within  the  present  limits  of  Guilford. 

At  the  time  when  the  deed  was  written,  the  pur- 
chasers must  have  been  already  resident  on  the  land 
purchased,  as  they  are  described  as  "  English  planters  of 
Menunkatuck."  Probably  those  who  arrived  in  the  first 
ship  had  visited  the  place,  and  prepared  the  way  by 
negotiating  with  the  Indians,  so  that,  soon  after  the 
others  came  to  land,  all  went  together  to  their  new 
home.  If  this  be  true,  the  deed  was  signed  at  Menunka- 
tuck,  though  there  is  no  proof  of  this  in  the  writing 
itself.  The  presence  of  John  Higginson,  one  of  the 
witnesses,  is  worthy  of  notice.  This  young  gentleman, 
now  in  the  twenty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  may  have 
stopped  at  the  new  settlement  merely  for  needful  re- 
freshment as  he  journeyed  from  Saybrook  Fort,  where 
he  was  chaplain,  to  visit  his  mother  at  Quinnipiac. 
But,  if  this  was  his  first  introduction  to  the  planters 
of  Menunkatuck,  we  may  conclude  from  his  subsequent 
history  that  he  soon  repeated  his  visit ;  for  within  two 
years  he  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Whitfield,  and  fixed 
his  residence  at  Guilford. 
^       Trumbull  says  of  the  founders  of  this  plantation  : — 


i66 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 


"  As  they  were  from  Kent  and  Surrey,  they  took  much  pains  to 
find  a  tract  of  land  resembling  that  from  which  they  had  removed. 
They  therefore  finally  pitched  upon  Guilford,  which,  toward  the 
sea,  where  they  made  the  principal  settlement,  was  low,  moist,  rich 
land,  liberal  indeed  to  the  husbandman,  especially  the  great  plain 
south  of  the  town.  This  had  been  already  cleared  and  enriched  by 
the  natives.  The  vast  quantities  of  shells  and  manure,  which  in  a 
course  of  ages  they  had  brought  upon  it  from  the  sea,  had  con- 
tributed much  to  the  natural  richness  of  the  soil.  There  were  also 
nearly  adjoining  to  this  several  necks,  or  points  of  land,  near  the 
sea,  clear,  rich,  and  fertile,  prepared  for  immediate  improvement." 

No  list  of  planters  is  extant  bearing  an  eariier  date 
than  1650.  About  that  time  a  catalogue  of  the  free- 
men was  recorded,  to  which  were  appended  the  names 
of  planters  not  yet  admitted  to  the  right  of  suffrage. 
Two  or  three  names  of  each  of  these  classes  appear  to 
have  been  added  as  late  as  1652.  The  freemen  of  the 
plantation  were :  — 


Henry  Whitfield. 
Jno.  Higginson. 
George  Hubbard. 
Mr.  Samuel  Desborough. 
Mr.  Robert  Kitchel. 
Mr.  Wm.  Chittenden. 
Mr.  Wm.  Leete. 
Thomas  Jordan. 
John  Hoadley. 
John  Scranton. 
George  Bartlett, 
Jasper  Stillwell. 
Alexander  Chalker. 
John  Stone. 


Thomas  Jones. 
William  Hall. 
Thomas  Betts. 
John  Parmelin,  sen. 
Henry  Kingsnorth. 
Thomas  Cook. 
Richard  Bristow. 
John  Parmelin,  Jr. 
John  Fowler. 
Wm.  Dudley. 
Richard  Gutridge. 
Abraham  Cruttenden,  sen. 
Edward  Benton. 
John  Evarts. 


The  planters  who  had  not  been  admitted  as  freemen 


were : 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD.    167 


John  Bishop,  sen. 
Thomas  Chatfield. 
Francis  Bushnell. 
Henry  Dowd. 
Richard  Hughes. 
George  Chatfield. 
William  Stone. 
John  Stevens. 
Benjamin  Wright. 
John  Linsley. 


John  Johnson. 
John  Sheader. 
Samuel  Blachley. 
Thomas  French. 
Stephen  Bishop. 
Thomas  Stevens. 
William  Bore  man. 
Edward  Seward. 
George  Highland. 
Abraham  Cruttenden,  Jr. 


The  planters  of  both  these  classes  were  at  that 
time  forty-eight  in  number ;  of  whom  four,  namely,  John 
Higginson,  George  Hubbard,  John  Fowler,  and  Thomas 
Betts,  had  not  been  of  the  company  of  original  plant- 
ers. Higginson  came  from  Saybrook,  where  he  had 
been  chaplain  for  four  years ;  and  the  three  others  re- 
moved from  Milford.  But  the  plantation  had  lost  as 
many  or  more  by  removals  from  it  as  it  had  gained  by 
removals  to  it  from  other  places ;  and  at  least  seven 
proprietors  are  known  to  have  died  before  1650.  We 
have  seen  how  Thomas  Nash,  who  came  in  the  same 
ship  with  Whitfield,  was  detached  from  the  company. 
John  Caffinge,  or  Caffinch,  one  of  the  six  trustees  for 
purchasing  and  holding  land,  and  the  only  one  of  them 
who  did  not  come  in  the  same  ship  with  Whitfield,  be- 
came a  planter  at  New  Haven  within  two  or  three 
years  after  the  deeds  were  signed  in  which  he  is 
named  as  grantee.  Thomas  Relf  and  Thomas  Dunk 
had  also  removed.  In  the  list  of  the  dead  were  Thom- 
as Norton,  Thomas  Mills,  John  Mepham,  John  Jordan, 
William  Somers,  William    Plane,  and  Francis  Austin. 

The  catalogue  of  planters  in  1650  doubtless  contains 
some  names   of  young  men,  who,  coming  with  their 


1 68  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

parents  in  1639,  had  since  become  proprietors.  If 
these  amounted  to  seven,  the  number  of  planters  in 
1639  was  the  same  as  in  1650.  Comparing  Guilford 
with  other  plantations  in  New  England  during  these 
eleven  years,  we  must  conclude  that  if  it  had  neither 
gained  nor  lost  in  population,  it  had  been  compara- 
tively prosperous.  England,  which  had  sent  so  many 
Puritans  to  America,  was  now  governed  by  Puritans, 
and  emigration  had  consequently  ceased.  Many  plan- 
tations were  losing  from  year  to  year  more  families  by 
the  removal  of  those  who  were  "  going  home  "  and  by 
deaths  than  they  gained  by  marriages.  The  people  of 
Guilford,  depending  entirely  on  agriculture  for  subsist- 
ence, and  having  abundance  of  fertile  land,  though 
they  suffered  in  the  general  depression,  were  not  so 
much  impoverished  as  the  merchants  of  New  Haven. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  plantation  till  the 
gathering  of  a  church  in  1643,  the  undivided  lands  were 
held  in  trust  by  the  six  planters  in  whose  name  the 
deed  was  originally  taken.  Four  of  the  six  were  early 
designated  as  a  provisional  committee  in  whom  all 
civil  power  was  vested.  At  a  meeting  of  the  planters 
held  Feb.  2,  1642,  it  was  "agreed  that  the  civil  power 
for  administration  of  justice  and  preservation  of  peace 
shall  remain  in  the  hands  of  Robert  Kitchel,  William 
Chittenden,  John  Bishop,  and  William  Leete,  formerly 
chosen  for  that  work,  until  some  may  be  chosen  out  of 
the  church  that  shall  be  gathered  here."  Mr.  Whit- 
field was  doubtless  excused  from  acting  in  this  provis- 
ional magistracy  on  account  of  his  pastoral  relation, 
and  Mr.  CaflSnch  had  removed  to  New  Haven.  When 
the   church   had   been   formed,  civil  government  was 


MILFORDy  GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,   169 

instituted  by  the  members  of  it ;  and  the  record  of  its 
institution  is  preceded  by  the  following  minute  con- 
cerning the  provisional  committee  of  four :  viz.,  — 

"  Into  their  hands  we  did  put  full  power  and  authority  to  act, 
order,  and  despatch  all  matters  respecting  the  public  weal  and 
dvil  government  of  the  plantation  till  a  church  was  gathered 
among  us,  which  the  Lord  in  mercy  having  now  done  according 
to  the  desire  of  our  hearts  ;  the  said  four  men  at  the  public  meet- 
ing having  resigned  up  their  trust  as  most  safe  and  suitable  for 
securing  of  those  main  ends  for  which  we  came  hither,"  &c. 

What  the  main  ends  thus  alluded  to  were,  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  extract :  — 

•*  The  main  ends  which  we  propounded  to  ourselves  in  our  com- 
ing hither  were  that  we  may  settle  and  uphold  the  ordinances  of 
God  in  an  explicit  Congregational  church  way  with  most  purity, 
peace,  and  liberty,  for  the  benefit  both  of  ourselves  and  our  pos* 
terities  after  us." 

Their  ideal  church,  for  the  realization  of  which  they 
had  been  willing  to  make  so  great  sacrifices,  was  insti- 
tuted June  19,  1643,  after  the  example  of  New  Haven 
and  Milford,  by  choosing  seven  men  who  might  admit 
other  approved  persons.  The  seven  who  were  chosen 
were  Henry  Whitfield,  John  Higginson,  Samuel  Des- 
borough,  William  Leete,  Jacob  Sheafe,  John  Mepham, 
and  John  Hoadley. 

The  settlement  of  their  ecclesiastical  and  civil  polity 
may  have  been  hastened  by  events  taking  place  be- 
yond the  precincts  of  Guilford.  Commissioners  from 
the  four  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecti- 
cut, and  'New  Haven  had  agreed  on  Articles  of  Con- 
federation ;  and  these  articles  had  been  signed  at  Bos- 
ton on  the  nineteenth  day  of  May,  just   one  month 


170  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

before  the  church  of  Guilford  was  instituted.  This 
confederation  of  colonies  was  formed  for  mutual  assist- 
ance and  defence,  and  was  deemed  especially  neces- 
sary in  view  of  the  distracted  condition  of  England, 
which  forbade  them  to  expect  help  from  the  mother 
country  in  any  quarrel  that  might  arise  with  the  colo- 
nies of  Holland  or  Sweden,  or  against  any  combina- 
tion of  savages  to  extirpate  the  white  people. 

Such  a  confederation  of  the  four  New  England  colo- 
nies made  it  necessary  that  the  plantations  about  New 
Haven,  if  they  would  reap  the  expected  advantages  of 
the  confederation,  should  be  combined  into  one  colo- 
nial government.  The  plantations  at  Stamford  and 
at  Southold  on  Long  Island  were  already  united  with 
the  plantation  at  New  Haven  in  one  jurisdiction. 
Guilford  accordingly  qualified  itself  to  be  admitted,  by 
organizing  its  plantation  government  after  the  pattern 
set  by  New  Haven,  and  proposed  by  that  plantation  as 
a  condition  of  union  with  it  in  one  colonial  govern- 
ment. 

The  planters  of  Guilford  who  were  not  church-mem- 
bers were  not  inferior  in  magnanimous  self-abnegation 
to  those  of  New  Haven,  who  for  the  public- weal  and 
in  allegiance  to  principle  had  relinquished  the  right  of 
suffrage.  So  far  as  is  known,  none  objected  to  the 
fundamental  agreement  thus  expressed :  "  We  do  now 
therefore,  all  and  every  of  us,  agree,  order  and  conclude 
that  only  such  planters  as  are  also  members  of  the 
church  here  shall  be  and  be  called  freemen,  and  that 
such  freemen  only  shall  have  power  to  elect  magis- 
trates, deputies,  and  other  officers  of  public  interest  or 
authority  in  matters  of  importance  concerning  either 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,   I /I 

the  civil  affairs  pr  government  here,  from  amongst 
themselves  and  not  elsewhere ;  and  to  take  an  account 
of  all  such  officers  for  the  honest  and  faithful  discharge 
of  their  several  places  respectively." 

It  will  be  observed  that  by  this  agreement  civil  pow- 
er is  restricted  to  members  of  the  church  in  Guilford ; 
while  at  New  Haven  church-membership  in  general 
was  the  required  qualification,  and  members  of  **  other 
approved  churches"  were  admitted  freemen,  as  well  as 
members  of  the  church  in  New  Haven.  But  this  di- 
vergence from  the  New  Haven  rule  was  probably  owing 

to  the  fact  that  all  church-members  at  Guilford  entered 

• 

at  once  into  the  new  ecclesiastical  organization. 

Southold  on  Long  Island  was  settled  by  a  compa- 
ny emigrating  from  Norfolkshire,  England,  under  the 
guidance  of  Rev.  John  Youngs.  As  they  sailed  direct 
for  New  Haven,  it  may  be  inferred  that  their  leader  was 
in  communication  with  Mr.  Davenport,  and  had  heard 
from  him  since  his  arrival  at  Quinnipiac.  There  is  no. 
documentary  testimony  in  regard  to  the  time  of  their 
arrival.  The  common  opinion  is,  that  they  came  over 
in  1640;  and  this  opinion  seems  to  be  founded  on  the 
testimony  of  Trumbull,  that  Mr.  Youngs  gathered  his 
church  anew  on  the  21st  of  October,  1640.  But,  if 
they  arrived  in  New  Haven  in  the  summer  of  1640, 
we  should  hardly  expect,  in  view  of  what  the  planters 
at  New  Haven,  Milford,  and  Guilford  did,  that  they, 
would  be  prepared  for  the  formal  organization  of  a 
church  the  same  year.  That  they  had  been  some  time 
on  the  ground  when  the  church  was  instituted,  appears 
from  the  record  "that  one  man    sold   his  house  only 


172  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

four  days  afterward."  '  If  Mr.  Youngs  conferred  with 
Mr.  Davenport  in  the  spring  of  1637,  and  waited  to 
hear  that  the  latter  had  found  "  accommodations  "  suf- 
ciently  ample  for  himself  and  for  his  friends,  he  needed 
not  to  wait  longer  than  1639.  Moreover,  tradition  says 
that  Mr.  Youngs'  company  staid  some  time  at  New 
Haven.  For  these  reasons  it  is  not  improbable  that 
they  landed  at  New  Haven  in  1639,  and  that  they  came 
in  the  vessel  mentioned  in  Mr.  Davenport's  letter  to 
Lady  Vere,  "as  expected  daily."  Be  this  as  it  may, 
they  not  only  shaped  their  institutions  according  to  the 
pattern  set  by  the  planters  of  New  Haven,  but  placed 
themselves  from  the  first  under  the  same  jurisdiction. 
Milford  and  Guilford,  though  using  the  mould  fashioned 
by  Davenport  and  Eaton,  had  established  each  a  juris- 
diction entirely  independent.  But  Southold,  or  Yenni- 
cot  (as  it  was  for  a  time  called),  was  a  part  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  New  Haven.  Hubbard  says,  "This  came 
to  pass  by  reason  of  the  purchase  of  the  land  by  some 
of  New  Haven,  who  disposed  of  it  to  the  inhabitants 
upon  condition  of  their  union."  Perhaps  it  would  be 
more  accurate  to  say  that,  Mr.  Youngs'  company  hav- 
ing been  persuaded  to  unite  their  plantation  with  that 
at  New  Haven  under  one  jurisdiction,  the  magistrates 
assisted  them  in  their  negotiations,  and  took  the  deed 
in  their  own  name  as  officers  of  the  jurisdiction.  That 
the  conveyance  was  made  to  the  jurisdiction,  and  not 
to  the  plantation  of  Southold,  is  evident  from  the  peti- 
tion of  the  freemen  of  Southold  at  a  general  court  held 
at  New  Haven  for  the  jurisdiction,  the  30th  of  May, 

*  History  of  Southold,  by  Rev.  Epher  Whitaker,  in  New  Haven  Colo- 
ny Historical  Society  ColL,  Vol  II. 


MILFORD,  GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,   1 73 

1649,  "that  the  purchase  of  their  plantation  might  be 
made  over  to  them."  But,  though  Yennicot  was  nomi- 
nally a  part  of  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven,  it  does 
not  appear  that  it  was  represented  in  any  court  at  New 
Haven,  or  that  any  legislative  action  was  taken  in  re- 
gard to  it  at  New  Haven  for  several  years.  Stamford 
appears  on  the  record  earlier  than  Southold,  as  a  plan- 
tation combined  with  that  at  New  Haven.  The  free- 
men of  Southold  were  for  the  time  being,  left  to  man- 
age their  own  affairs,  and  no  sufficiently  cogent  reason 
urged  them  to  send  deputies  to  the  court  at  New  Haven. 
"  Among  the  early  settlers,"  says  Rev.  Epher  Whit- 
aker,  "were  Rev.  John  Youngs,  William  Wells,  Esq., 
Barnabas  Horton,  Peter  Hallock,  John  Tuthill,  Richard 
Terry,  Thomas  Mapes,  Matthias  Corwin,  Robert  Ak- 
erly,  John  Corey,  John  Conklyne,  John  Budd,  Thomas 
Moore,  Richard  Benjamin,  Philemon  Dickerson,  Bar- 
nabas Wines,  James  Reeve,  William  Purrier,  John 
Tucker,  Jeremiah  Vail,  Henry  Case,  John  Swazey, 
Charles  Glover,  Robert  Smyth,  Richard  Skidmore, 
John  Elton,  Thomas  Benedict,  John  Booth,  Richard 
Brown,  Ralph  Goldsmith,  Simon  Grover,  Thomas 
Cooper,  Caleb  Curtis,  Thomas  Dimon,  James  Haines, 
John  Herbert,  Peter  Paine,  and  Samuel  King."  But 
some  of  these  did  not  come  from  England  with  Mr. 
Youngs'  company,  and  did  not  become  planters  at 
Southold  when  it  was  first  settled.  Lieut.  John  Budd 
removed  from  New  Haven,  and  probably  others  from 
other  plantations.  Trumbull  mentions  Mr.  Youngs, 
Mr.  William  Wells,  Mr.  Barnabas  Horton,  Thomas 
Mapes,  John  Tuthill,  and  Matthias  Corwin  as  "some 
of  the  principal  men." 


174  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

When  Trumbull  speaks  of  Mr.  Youngs  as  gathering 
his  church  anew,  he  seems  to  intimate  that  some  of  his 
company  had  been  under  his  pastoral  care  in  England. 
Youngs  had  probably  been  the  pastor  of  a  Separate  or 
Congregational  church  in  Hingham,  Norfolkshire,  and, 
like  John  Lothrop,  had  brought  his  church  with  him. 
Though  Trumbull  says  nothing  of  gathering  the  church 
upon  a  foundation-work  of  seven  men  chosen  for  that 
purpose,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  considering  the  close 
union  between  New  Haven  and  Southold,  that  the 
church  was  gathered  in  that  way,  or  that  the  seven 
thus  chosen  were  the  foundation  and  beginning  of  the 
general  court,  as  well  as  of  the  church. 

Stamford  was  purchased  of  the  Indians  by  Capt. 
Turner,  as  agent  for  the  people  of  New  Haven,  July  r, 
1640.  New  Haven  doubtless  purchased  the  territory 
for  the  sake  of  securing  it  for  planters  who  would 
establish  institutions  like  her  own.  On  the  fourth  day 
of  November  in  the  same  year,  the  General  Court  of 
New  Haven  sold  the  territory  to  Andrew  Ward  and 
Robert  Coe,  the  representatives  of  about  twenty-two 
families  wishing  to  leave  Wethersfield,  and  establish  a 
new  plantation  after  the  pattern  set  by  New  Haven,  and 
under  its  jurisdiction.     The  terms  of  the  sale  were  :  — 

"  First,  that  they  shall  repay  unto  the  said  town  of  New  Haven 
all  the  charges  which  they  have  disbursed  about  it,  which  comes 
to  ;^33,  as  appears  by  a  note  or  schedule  hereunto  annexed. 
Secondly,  that  they  reserve  a  fifth  part  of  the  said  plantation  to 
be  disposed  of  at  the  appointment  of  this  court  to  such  desirable 
persons  as  may  be  expected,  or  as  God  shall  send  hither;  pro- 
vided, that,  if  within  one  whole  year  such  persons  do  not  come  to 
fill  up  those  lots  so  reserved,  that  then  it  shall  be  free  for  the  said 


MILFORD,   GUILFORD,  SOUTHOLD,  STAMFORD,    1 75 

people  to  nominate  and  present  to  this  court  some  persons  of  their 
own  choice  who  may  fill  up  some  of  those  lots  so  reserved  if  this 
court  should  approve  of  them.  Thirdly,  that  they  join  in  all  points 
with  this  plantation  in  the  form  of  government  here  settled." 

• 

Trumbull  says  that  the  whole  number  for  whom  the 
purchase  was  made,  obliged  themselveis  to  remove  with 
their  families  the  next  year  before  the  last  of  Novem- 
ber, and  that  the  settlement  commenced  in  the  spring 
of  1641.  He  mentions  as  the  principal  planters,  Rev. 
Richard  Denton,  Mr.  Matthew  Mitchel,  Mr.  Thurston 
Raynor,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward,  Mr.  Robert  Coe,  and  Mr. 
Richard  Gildersleeve.  He  might  have  added  the  name 
of  Francis  Bell,  who,  with  Andrew  Ward,  was  present 
at  a  general  court  of  election  held  at  New  Haven  the 
27th  of  October,  1641,  where  they  were  admitted  mem- 
bers of  the  court,  and  received  the  charge  of  freemen. 
Their  presence  as  members  of  the  court  is  the  first  inti- 
mation in  the  records  that  that  assembly  had  become 
a  court  for  the  plantations  combined  in  the  jurisdiction 
of  New  Haven.  At  the  same  court  "Thurston  Raynor 
(was)  chosen  constable  for  Rippowams,  to  order  such 
business  as  may  fall  in  that  town,  according  to  God,  for 
the  ensuing  year ;  but  is  not  to  be  established  in  his 
office  till  he  have  received  his  charge  from  this  court, 
and  signified  his  acceptance  thereof  to  this  court." 

On  the  6th  of  April,  1642,  Matthew  Mitchell  and 
John  Whitmore  of  Rippowams  were  admitted  members 
of  the  court,  and  accepted  the  charge  of  freemen.  On 
the  same  day  "  the  plantation  of  Rippowams  is  named 
Stamford."  The  record  styles  Mitchell  and  Whitmore 
"deputies  for  Stamford,"  as  if  they  had  been  appointed 
by  the  freemen  of  that  plantation  to  attend  as  their 


z> 


I. 


1/6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

deputies.  Doubtless  Andrew  Ward  and  Francis  Bell 
had  received  a  similar  appointment  in  the  preceding 
autumn. 

At  the  same  court  John  Tuthill  of  Southold  was 
appointed  "  constable  to  order  the  affairs  of  that  planta- 
tion, the  time  being,  till  some  further  course  be  taken 
by  this  court  for  the  settling  a  magistracy  there  accord- 
ing to  God." 

The  court,  having  thus  assumed  to  legislate  for  other 
plantations  than  New  Haven,  "  ordered  that  every  first 
Wednesday  in  April,  and  every  Wednesday  in  the  last 
whole  week  in  October,  shall  be  a  general  court  held  at 
New  Haven  for  the  plantations  in  combination  with  this  f^ 
town,^^ 

This  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  formal  institution 
of  colonial  government  at  New  Haven.  The  General 
Court,  so  far  as  appears  from  the  records,  had  confined 
its  legislation  to  the  affairs  of  the  New  Haven  plan- 
tation till  October,  1641.  At  its  next  semi-annual 
meeting,  it  declares  itself  to  be,  in  all  its  regular  semi- 
annual meetings,  a  colonial  legislature,  having  juris- 
diction over  the  combined  plantations  of  New  Haven, 
Southold,  and  Stamford. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  have  to  relate  how  Guilford 
and  Milford,  which,  though  organized  after  the  pattern 
of  New  Haven,  were  entirely  independent,  became 
united  with  the  three  plantations  mentioned  above  as 
already  combined  in  one  jurisdiction,  and  how  the 
colony  which  included  these  five  plantations  united  with 
other  colonies  in  a  confederation  which  they  called 
"The  United  Colonies  of  New  England." 


CHAPTER  X. 

ESTABLISHMENT   OF   A   COLONIAL  GOVERNMENT. 

IN  narrating  the  settlement  of  Stamford,  we  showed 
that  its  freemen  were  received  as  members  of  the 
General  Court  at  New  Haven.  The  court  by  so  receiv- 
ing them  became  a  court  for  the  jurisdiction.  Six 
months  afterward,  when  Stamford  again  made  its  ap- 
pearance, the  court  formally  declared  that  in  its  regu- 
lar April  and  October  meetings  it  was  "a  General 
Court  held  at  New  Haven  for  the  plantations  in  com- 
bination with  this  town."  Its  records,  however,  were 
made  in  the  same  book  and  by  the  same  secretary  as 
before,  and  are  intermingled  with  those  of  the  New 
Haven  plantation  courts,  both  general  and  particular. 
The  general  courts  for  the  jurisdiction  are  not  dis- 
tinguished from  the  general  courts  previously  held  in 
April  and  October  by  any  different  title,  till  the  secre- 
tary styles  it  on  the  26th  of  October,  1643,  **^  General 
Court  of  Election  held  at  New  Haven  for  this  juris- 
diction;" and  on  the  following  day,  "a  General  Court 
held  at  New  Haven  for  the  jurisdiction."  Thereafter, 
as  long  as  its  proceedings  were  recorded  in  the  same 
book,  this  colonial  assembly  is  distinguished  by  this 
title  from  an  assembly  of  the  freemen  resident  at  New 

Haven,  which  was  sometimes  but  not   always  contra 

177 


1/8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY.      * 

distinguished  as  "  a  General  Court  held  at  New  Haven 
for  the  plantation."  The  record-book  of  the  New- 
Haven  plantation  records  only  two  courts  for  the 
jurisdiction  later  than  April,  1644, — one  a  court  of 
magistrates  held  June  14,  1646,  and  the  other  a  court 
of  election  held  Oct.  27  in  the  same  year.  Plainly  some 
other  book  was  ordinarily  used  ;  and  probably  some 
other  secretary  had  been  appointed  in  place  of  Fugill, 
who  acted  as  secretary  for  the  jurisdiction  till  April, 
1644.  Unfortunately  the  first  record-book  belonging  to 
the  jurisdiction  has  been  lost ;  and  there  is  consequent- 
ly, with  the  exception  mentioned,  a  hiatus  in  the  rec- 
ords of  the  jurisdiction  extending  from  April,  1644,  to 
May,  1653.  The  history  of  the  colony  during  this 
period  of  nine  years  must  be  gleaned  from  the  records 
of  the  towns  and  of  the  United  Colonies.  After  May, 
1653*  the  records  are  complete,  and  furnish  more  copi- 
ous information.  At  a  general  court  held  at  New 
Haven  on  the  5th  of  April,  1643,  the  transaction  of 
business,  both  for  the  jurisdiction  and  for  the  town, 
shows  that  the  court  itself,  as  well  as  its  secretary, 
had  not  quite  learned  to  discriminate  between  the  local 
and  the  colonial  government.  Besides  calling  Good- 
man Osborne  to  account  for  spoiling  divers  hides  in  the 
tanning,  and  ordering  "  that  sister  Preston  shall  sweep 
and  dress  the  meeting-house  every  week,  and  have  one 
shilling  a  week  for  her  pains,'*  the  court  appointed 
Thurston  Raynor  "  magistrate  to  execute  that  office  at 
Stamford  until  the  next  general  court  of  election  at 
New  Haven,  which  will  be  in  October  next,"  and 
"ordered  that  those  four  men  already  employed  in 
the  town's  occasions  there,  namely,  Capt.  John  Under- 


A  COLONIAL  GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED,     1 79 

hill,  Mr.  Mitchell,  Andrew  Ward,  and  Robert  Coe, 
shall  assist  as  the  deputies  at  New  Haven  in  counsel 
and  advice  for  the  more  comely  carrying  on  of  public 
afiFairs." 

Thus  Stamford,  like  New  Haven,  had  its  magistrate 
and  its  four  deputies.  The  meaning  of  the  specifica- 
tion that  the  deputies  should  assist  the  magistrate  in 
counsel  and  advice  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  the 
order  appointing  "  the  deputies  at  New  Haven "  six 
months  before,  which  reads  thus:  "Mr.  Malbon,  Mr. 
Gregson,  Mr.  Gilbert,  and  Mr.  Wakeman  are  chosen 
deputies  for  this  ensuing  year  to  assist  in  the  courts 
by  way  of  advice,  but  not  to  have  any  power  by  way 
of  sentence." 

There  is  no  evidence  that  a  magistracy  had  been  at 
this  time  set  up  at  Southold.  The  freemen  there  held 
general  courts  in  which  the  affairs  of  the  plantation 
were  ordered  ;  and  these  assemblies  were  convened  by 
persons  commissioned  to  do  so,  and  to  act  for  the  free- 
men in  the  intervals  between,  the  courts  as  the  select- 
men of  a  town  now  are.  Besides  these  plantation  offi- 
cers, there  was  a  constable  at  Southold  appointed  by 
the  jurisdiction  to  be  its  representative  and  functionary 
till  a  magistracy  should  be  settled. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  colonial  government 
when  it  entered  into  confederation  with  the  colonies  of 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut,  in  1643. 
A  confederation  of  colonics  had  been  proposed,  and 
artcles  of  union  had  been  drawn,  before  any  govern- 
ment had  been  established  at  Quinnipiac.  Gov.  Haynes 
and  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker  of  Connecticut  had  spent  nearly 
a    month   in   Massachusetts  in    1639,   endeavoring  to 


l8o  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

carry  the  project  into  effect.  Various  obstacles  had 
retarded  the  desired  union.  Massachusetts,  being 
much  more  populous  and  powerful  than  the  other 
colonies,  was  not  favorable  to  union  on  equal  terms. 
The  other  colonies  were  still  more  averse  to  terms 
which  implied  inferiority.  Besides,  there  were  ques- 
tions at  issue  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
in  regard  to  the  Pequot  country,  Massachusetts  claiming 
a  part  of  it  for  the  assistance  she  rendered  in  the  Pe- 
quot war ;  and  in  regard  to  the  boundary  between  the 
two  colonies,  Connecticut  claiming  the  towns  of  Spring- 
field and  Westfield. 

The  union  was  finally  consummated,  notwithstanding 
the  difficulties  in  the  way.  Their  Dutch  neighbors 
were  troublesome  to  the  planters  of  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven,  and  the  Indians  in  various  places  through- 
out New  England  were  hostile.  The  triumph  of  the 
Puritan  party  in  the  mother-country  had  brought  to  an 
end  the  large  accessions  of  strength  from  that  source, 
which  till  recently  the  colonies  had  annually  received. 
Each  of  the  parties  needed,  or  might  at  any  moment 
need,  help  from  the  others. 

At  a  general  court,  the  6th  of  April,  1643,  "it  was 
ordered  that  Mr.  Eaton  and  Mr.  Gregson,  as  commis- 
sioners from  this  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven,  shall  go 
with  other  commissioners  for  other  plantations  into  the 
Bay  of  Massachusetts,  to  treat  about  a  general  combi- 
nation for  all  the  plantations  in  New  England,  and  to 
conclude  and  determine  the  same,  as  in  their  wisdom 
they  shall  see  cause,  for  the  exalting  of  Christ's  ends, 
and  advancing  the  public  good  in  all  the  plantations." 

These  commissioners   met   similar  appointees  from 


A   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED.     l8l 

Connecticut,  Plymouth,  and  Massachusetts  at  Boston ; 
and,  on  the  19th  of  May,  articles  of  union  were  com- 
pleted and  signed  by  the  representatives  of  Connecticut, 
New  Haven,  and  Massachusetts.  The  commissioners 
of  Plymouth  approved  the  articles,  but  were  not  author- 
ized to  sign  them.  But,  being  afterward  empowered 
to  do  so,  they  signed  them  in  the  following  Septem- 
ber. 

These  articles  declare  in  substance  :  — 

I.  That  the  four  colonies  agree  to  be  and  to  be  called,  The 
United  Colonies  of  New  England. 

II.  That  they  enter  into  a  league  of  amity  for  offence  and 
defence,  mutual  advice  and  succor. 

III.  That  each  colony  shall  have  peculiar  jurisdiction  and  gov- 
ernment within  its  own  limits ;  that  without  consent  of  all,  no  two 
members  shall  be  united  in  one,  and  no  new  members  shall  be 
received. 

IV.  That  the  expense  of  wars  shall  be  borne  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  male  inhabitants  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of 
age. 

V.  That  its  confederates  shall  aid  any  colony  invaded  by  an 
enemy  in  the  proportion,  of  one  hundred  men  for  Massachusetts, 
and  forty-five  for  each  of  the  other  colonies. 

VI.  That  each  of  the  four  colonies  shall  choose  two  commis- 
sioners, "  being  all  in  church  fellowship  with  us,  who  shall  bring 
full  power  from  their  several  general  courts  respectively,  to  hear, 
examine,  weigh,  and  determine  all  affairs  of  war  and  peace,  leagues, 
aids,  charges,  and  number  of  men  for  war,  division  of  spoils,  or 
whatsoever  is  gotten  by  conquest,  receiving  of  more  confederates 
or  plantations  into  combination  with  any  of  these  confederates, 
and  all  things  of  like  nature  which  are  the  proper  concomitants  or 
consequents  of  such  a  confederation  for  amity,  offence,  and  defence, 
not  intermeddling  with  the  government  of  any  of  the  jurisdictions, 
which  by  the  third  article  is  preserved  entirely  to  themselves ; "  and 
that,  if  these  eight  do  not  agree,  then  any  six  agreeing  shall  have 
power  to  determine  the  business  in  question. 


l82  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

VII.  That  the  eight  commissioners  at  each  meeting  may  choose 
a  president  by  the  concurrence  of  all  or  ot  six. 

VIII.  That  the  commissioners  shall  frame  and  establish  such 
orders  as  may  preserve  friendship  between  the  members  of  the 
union,  and  prevent  occasions  of  war  with  others.  Under  this  head 
are  specified,  the  free  and  speedy  passage  of  justice  in  each  juris- 
diction to  all  the  confederates  equally  as  to  their  own ;  not  receiv- 
ing those  that  remove  from  one  plantation  to  another  without  due 
certificates ;  how  all  the  jurisdictions  may  carry  it  toward  the 
Indians ;  and  the  surrender  of  fugitive  servants  and  fugitive 
criminals. 

IX.  That  no  colony  may  engage  in  war  without  the  consent  of 
all,  unless  upon  some  exigency. 

X.  That  in  extraordinary  occasions,  four  commissioners,  if  more 
are  not  present,  may  direct  a  war  which  cannot  be  delayed,  sending 
for  due  proportion  of  men  out  of  each  jurisdiction ;  but  that  the 
expense  of  a  war  thus  begun  may  not  be  levied  till  at  least  six 
commissioners  have  approved  of  their  action. 

XI.  That  if  any  colony  shall  break  any  article  of  the  confedera- 
tion, or  injure  one  of  the  other  colonies,  such  breach  or  injury  shall 
be  considered  and  ordered  by  the  commissioners  of  the  three 
other  confederates. 

XII.  That  this  confederation  and  the  several  articles  and  agree- 
ments thereof  were  freely  allowed  and  confirmed  by  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  and,  if  Plymouth  consents,  the 
whole  treaty,  as  it  stands,  is  and  shall  continue  firm  and  stable 
without  alteration ;  but,  if  Plymouth  consents  not,  then  the  other 
three  confederates  confirm  the  confederation  and  all  its  articles, 
except  that  new  consideration  may  be  taken  of  the  sixth  article 
which  determines  the  number  of  commissioners  for  meeting  and 
determining  the  affairs  of  this  confederation. 

When  the  colony  of  New  Haven  entered  into  this 
confederation,  it  consisted  only  of  the  plantations  of 
New  Haven,  Southold,  and  Stamford ;  but  Guilford, 
establishing  a  plantation  government  in  the  following 
month,   was   ready  to  become  incorporated  into  the 


A   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED.     1 83 

colony  as  soon  thereafter  as  the  consent  of  the  confed- 
erated colonies  could  be  obtained.  Such  consent  was 
obtained  in  the  following  September,  at  tile  first  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  held  under  the  articles.  At 
the  same  meeting,  "  upon  a  motion  made  by  the  commis- 
sioners for  New  Haven  jurisdiction,  it  was  granted  and 
ordered  that  the  town  of  Milford  may  ^be  received  into 
combination  and  as  a  member  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
New  Haven,  if  New  Haven  and  Milford  agree  upon  the 
terms  and  conditions  among  themselves." 

The  obstacle  which  had  delayed  the  entrance  of  Mil- 
ford into  the  combination  will  be  sufficiently  displayed 
by  the  record  of  the  action  taken  at  New  Haven  for  its 
admission.  We  transcribe,  therefore,  without  abridg- 
ment, the  proceedings  at  a  general  court  held  at  New 
Haven,  the  23d  of  October,  1643  :  — 

"  Whereas  this  plantation  at  first  with  general  and  full  consent 
laid  their  foundations  that  none  but  members  of  approved  churches 
should  be  accounted  free  burgesses,  nor  should  any  else  have  any 
vote  in  any  election,  or  power  or  trust  in  ordering  of  civil  affairs, 
in  which  way  we  have  constantly  proceeded  hitherto  in  our  whole 
court  with  much  comfortable  fruit  through  God's  blessing;  and 
whereas  Stamford,  Guilford,  and  Yennicock  have,  upon  the  same 
•  foundations  and  engagements,  entered  into  combination  with  us : 
this  court  was  now  informed  that  of  late  there  have  been  some 
meetings  and  treaties  between  some  of  Milford  and  Mr.  Eaton, 
about  a  combination,  by  which  it  appeareth  that  Milford  hath 
formerly  taken  in  as  free  burgesses,  six  planters  who  are  not  in 
church-fellowship,  which  hath  bred  some  difficulty  in  the  passages 
of  this  treaty,  but  at  present  it  stands  thus  :  the  deputies  for  Mil- 
ford have  offered,  in  the  name  both  of  the  church  and  the  town. 
First,  that  the  present  six  free  burgesses  who  are  not  church-mem- 
bers shall  not  at  any  time  hereafter  be  chosen,  either  deputies  or  into 
any  public  trust  for  the  combination;  Secondly,  that  they  shall 


l84  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

neither  personally,  nor  by  proxy,  vote  at  any  time  in  the  election  of 
magistrates ;  and,  Thirdly^  that  none  shall  be  admitted  freemen  or 
free  burgesses^ereafter  at  Milford,  but  church-members  according 
to  the  practice  at  New  Haven.  Thus  far  they  granted,  but  in  two 
particulars  they  and  their  said  six  freemen  desire  liberty :  First,  that 
the  said  six  freemen,  being  already  admitted  by  them,  may  continue 
to  act  in  all  proper  particular  town  business  wherein  the  combina- 
tion is  not  interested ;  and.  Secondly,  that  they  may  vote  in  the 
election  of  deputies  to  be  sent  to  the  general  courts  for  the  combina- 
tion or  jurisdiction,  which  deputies  so  to  be  chosen  and  sent  shall 
always  be  church-members." 

"  The  premises  being  seriously  considered  by  the  whole  court, 
the  brethren  did  express  themselves  as  one  man,  clearly  and  fully, 
that  in  the  foundations  laid  for  civil  government  they  have  attend- 
ed their  light,  and  should  have  failed  in  their  duty,  had  they  done 
otherwise,  and  professed  themselves  careful  and  resolved  not  to 
shake  the  said  groundworks  by  any  change  for  any  respect,  and 
ordered  that  this  their  understanding  of  this  their  way  and  resolu- 
tion'to  maintain  it  should  be  entered  with  their  vote  in  this  busi- 
ness, as  a  lasting  record.  But  not  foreseeing  any  danger  in  yield- 
ing to  Milford  with  the  forementioned  cautions,  it  was  by  general 
consent  and  vote,  ordered  that  the  consociation  proceed  in  all 
things  according  to  the  premises." 

The  action  taken  above  was  the  action  of  the  town 
(as  a  plantation  about  that  time  began  to  be  called)  of 
New  Haven ;  but  it  seems  to  have  determined  the 
question  respecting  the  admission  of  Milford.  Three 
days  afterward  a  general  court  of  election  for  the  juris- 
diction was  held  at  New  Haven,  at  which  two  magis- 
trates were  chosen  for  Milford ;  and  on  the  next  day 
after  the  election  a  general  court  for  the  jurisdiction 
was  held,  at  which  the  two  magistrates  for  Milford 
were  present,  as  were  also  two  deputies  appointed  by 
that  town.  At  this  general  court  a  constitution  for 
the  colonial  government  was  adopted,  the  provisions  of 
which  were  as  follows  :  — 


A   COLONIAL  .GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED,      185 

1.  "It  was  agreed  and  concluded  as  a  fundamental  order,  not  to 
be  disputed  or  questioned  hereafter,  that  none  shall  be  admitted 
to  be  free  burgesses  in  any  of  the  plantations  within  this  jurisdic- 
tion for  the  future,  but  such  planters  as  are  members  of  some  or 
other  of  the  approved  churches  in  New  England ;  nor  shall  any  but 
such  free  burgesses  have  any  vote  in  any  election  (the  six  present 
freemen  at  Milford  enjoying  the  liberty  with  the  cautions  agreed) ; 
nor  shall  any  power  or  trust  in  the  ordering  of  any  civil  affairs  be 
at  any  time  put  into  the  hands  of  any  other  than  such  church-mem- 
bers, though,  as  free  planters,  all  have  rights  to  their  inheritance 
and  to  commerce,  according  to  such  grants,  orders,  and  laws  as 
shall  be  made  concerning  the  same." 

2.  "  All  such  free  burgesses  shall  have  power  in  each  town  or 
plantation  within  this  jurisdiction  to  choose  fit  and  able  men  from 
amongst  themselves,  being  church-members  as  before,  to  be  the 
ordinary  judges  to  hear  and  determine  all  inferior  causes,  whether 
civil  or  criminal,  provided  that  no  civil  cause  to  be  tried  in  any  of 
these  Plantation  Courts  in  value  exceed  twenty  pounds  sterling, 
and  that  the  punishment  in  such  criminals,  according  to  the  mind 
of  God  revealed  in  his  word,  touching  such  offences,  do  not  exceed 
stocking  and  whipping,  or  if  the  fine  be  pecuniary,  that  it  exceed 
not  five  pounds.  In  which  court  the  magistrate  or  magistrates,  if 
any  be  chosen  by  the  free  burgesses  of  the  jurisdiction  for  that 
plantation,  shall  sit  and  assist  with  due  respect  to  their  place,  and 
sentence  shall  pass  according  to  the  vote  of  the  major  part  of  each 
such  court ;  only,  if  the  parties  or  any  of  them  be  not  satisfied  with 
the  justice  of  such  sentences  or  executions,  appeals  or  complaints 
may  be  made  from  and  against  these  courts  to  the  court  of  magis- 
trates for  the  whole  jurisdiction." 

3.  "All  such  free  burgesses  through  the  whole  jurisdiction, 
shall  have  vote  in  the  election  of  all  magistrates,  whether  governor, 
deputy  governor,  or  other  magistrates,  with  a  treasurer,  a  secre- 
tary, and  a  marshal,  &c.,  for  the  jurisdiction.  And  for  the  ease  of 
those  free  burgesses,  especially  in  the  more  remote  plantations, 
they  may  by  proxy  vote  in  these  elections,  though  absent,  their 
votes  being  sealed  up  in  the  presence  of  the  free  burgesses  them- 
selves, that  their  several  liberties  may  be  preserved,  and  their 
votes  directed  according  to  their  own  particular  light ;  and  these 


1 86  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

• 

free  burgesses  may,  at  every  election,  choose  so  many  magistrates 
for  each  plantation,  as  the  weight  of  afiEairs  may  require,  and  as 
they  find  fit  men  for  that  trust  But  it  is  provided  and  agreed, 
that  no  plantation  shall  at  any  election  be  left  Restitute  of  a  magis- 
trate if  they  desire  one  to  be  chosen  out  of  those  in  church  fellow- 
ship with  them." 

4.  "  All  the  magistrates  for  the  whole  jurisdiction  shall  meet 
twice  a  year  at  New  Haven,  namely,  the  Monday  immediately 
before  the  sitting  of  the  two  fixed  general  courts  hereafter  men- 
tioned, to  keep  a  court  called  the  Court  of  Magistrates,  for  the  trial 
of  weighty  and  capital  cases,  whether  civil  or  criminal,  above  those 
limited  to  the  ordinary  judges  in  the  particular  plantations,  and  to 
receive  and  try  all  appeals  brought  unto  them  from  the  aforesaid 
Plantation  Courts,  and  to  call  all  the  inhabitants,  whether  free 
burgesses,  free  planters,  or  others,  to  account  for  the  breach  of  any 
laws  established,  and  for  other  misdemeanors,  and  to  censure 
them  according  to  the  quality  of  the  offence,  in  which  meetings  of 
magistrates,  less  than  four  shall  not  be  accounted  a  court,  nor 
shall  they  carry  on  any  business  as  a  court ;  but  it  is  expected  and 
required  that  all  the  magistrates  in  this  jurisdiction  do  constantly 
attend  the  public  service  at  the*  times  before  mentioned,  and  if  any 
of  them  be  absent  at  one  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon  on  Monday 
aforesaid,  when  the  court  shall  sit,  or  if  any  of  them  depart  the 
town  without  leave,  while  the  court  sits,  he  or  they  shall  pay  for 
any  such  default,  twenty  shillings  fine,  unless  some  providence  of 
God  occasion  the  same,  which  the  Court  of  Magistrates  shall  judge 
of  from  time  to  time,  and  all  sentences  in  this  court  shall  pass  by 
the  vote  of  the  major  part  of  magistrates  therein ;  but  from  this 
Court  of  Magistrates  appeals  and  complaints  may  be  made  and 
brought  to  the  General  Court  as  the  last  and  highest  for  this 
jurisdiction;  but  in  all  appeals  or  complaints  from  or  to  what 
courts  soever,  due  costs  and  damages  shall  be  paid  by  him  or 
them  that  make  appeal  or  complaint  without  just  cause." 

5.  "  Besides  the  Plantation  Courts,  and  Courts  of  Magistrates, 
there  shall  be  a  General  Court  for  the  jurisdiction,  which  shall  con- 
sist of  the  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  all  the  magistrates  within 
the  jurisdiction,  and  two  deputies  for  every  plantation  in  the  juris- 
diction, which  deputies  shall  from  time  to  time  be  chosen  against 


A   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  ESTABLISHED,      1 8/ 

the  approach  of  any  such  general  court  by  the  aforesaid  free  bur- 
gesses, and  sent  with  due  certificate  to  assist  in  the  same,  all  which, 
both  governor  and  deputy-governor,  magistrates,  and  deputies,  shall 
have  their  vote  in  the  said  court  This  general  court  shall  always 
sit  at  New  Haven  (unless  upon  weighty  occasions  the  general  court 
see  cause  for  a  time  to  sit  elsewhere),  and  shall  assemble  twice 
every  year;  namely,  the  first  Wednesday  in  April  and  the  last 
Wednesday  in  October,  in  the  latter  of  which  courts  the  governor, 
the  deputy-governor,  and  all  the  magistrates  for  the  whole  jurisdic- 
tion, with  a  treasurer,  a  secretary,  and  a  marshal,  shall  yearly  be 
chosen  by  all  the  free  burgesses  before  mentioned,  besides  which 
two  fixed  courts,  the  governor,  or  in  his  absence  the  deputy-gov- 
ernor, shall  have  power  to  summon  a  general  court  at  any  other 
time,  as  the  urgent  and  extraordinary  occasions  of  the  jurisdiction 
may  require ;  and  at  all  general  courts,  whether  ordinary  or  extraor- 
dinary, the  governor  and  deputy-governor,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
magistrates  for  the  jurisdiction,  with  the  deputies  for  the  several 
plantations,  shall  sit  together  till  the  affairs  of  the  jurisdiction'  be 
despatched  or  may  safely  be  respited ;  and  if  any  of  the  said  magis- 
trates or  deputies  shall  either  be  absent  at  the  first  sitting  of  the 
said  general  court  (unless  some  providence  of  God  hinder,  which 
the  said  court  shall  judge  of),  or  depart,  or  absent  themselves  dis- 
orderly before  the  court  be  finished,  he  or  they  shall  each  of  them 
pay  twenty  shillings  fine,  with  due  consideration  of  further  aggra- 
vations, if  there  shall  be  cause ;  which  general  court  shall,  with  all 
care  and  diligence,  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  the  purity  of 
religion,  and  shall  suppress  the  contrary,  according  to  their  best 
light  from  the  word  of  God  and  all  wholesome  and  sound  advice 
which  shall  be  given  by  the  elders  and  churches  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion, so  far  as  may  concern  their  civil  power  to  deal  therein." 

"  Secondly,  they  shall  have  power  to  make  and  repeal  laws,  and, 
while  they  are  in  force,  to  require  execution  of  them  in  all  the  sev- 
eral plantations." 

"Thirdly,  to  impose  an  oath  upon  all  the  magistrates  for  the 
faithful  discharge  of  the  trust  committed  to  them,  according  to 
their  best  abilities,  and  to  call  them  to  account  for  the  breach  of 
any  laws  established,  or  for  other  misdemeanors,  and  to  censure 
them  as  the  quality  of  the  offence  shall  require." 


1 88  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"  Fourthly,  to  impose  an  oath  of  fidelity  and  due  subjection  to 
the  laws  upon  all  the  free  burgesses,  free  planters,  and  other 
inhabitants  within  the  whole  jurisdiction." 

'*  Fifthly,  to  settle  and  levy  rates  and  contributions  upon  all  the 
several  plantations,  for  the  public  service  of  the  plantation." 

*' Sixthly,  to  hear  and  determine  all  causes,  whether  civil  or 
criminal,  which  by  appeal  or  complaint  shall  be  orderly  brought 
unto  them  from  any  of  the  other  courts,  or  from  any  of  the  other 
plantations.  In  all  which,  with  whatsoever  else  shall  fall  within 
their  cognizance  or  judicature,  they  shall  proceed  according  to  the 
Scriptures,  which  is  the  rule  of  all  righteous  laws  and  sentences ; 
and  nothing  shall  pass  as  an  act  of  the  general  court,  but  by  the 
consent  of  the  major  part  of  magistrates  and  the  greater  part  of 
deputies." 

The  adoption  of  this  constitution  seems  to  have  put 
an-end  to  that  confusion  of  ideas  which  had  sometimes 
allowed  the  administration  of  both  plantation  and  colo- 
nial a£Eairs  in  the  same  court.  The  written  constitution 
may  have  helped  the  New  Haven  men  to  discriminate ; 
and  the  presence  in  the  court  of  members  from  Guilford 
and  Milford,  hitherto  independent  plantations,  necessa- 
rily tended  strongly  in  the  same  direction.  The  colo- 
nial constitution  remained  substantially  the  same  from 
this  time  till  the  colony  was  absorbed  into  Connecticut, 
more  than  twenty  years  afterward.  The  union  of  these 
plantations  in  a  colonial  government,  and  the  confed- 
eration of  the  colony  with  the  other  colonies  of  New 
England,  were  auxiliary  to  security  and  peace. 


CHAPTER   XL 


INDUSTRIAL   PURSUITS. 


FROM  the  establishment  of  the  New  Haven  colo- 
nial government,  to  its  extinction  by  the  absorption 
of  the  colony  into  Connecticut,  there  was  a  period  of 
twenty-two  years.  Before  proceeding  to  narrate  the 
political  history  of  the  colony  during  this  period,  we 
propose  to  give  some  account  of  the  various  industries 
in  which  its  people  were  employed ;  of  its  institutions 
for  the  maintenance  of  intelligence,  morality,  and  reli- 
gion ;  of  its  military  organization  and  achievements ;  of 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants  with  whom  its  people  had 
intercourse ;  and  of  the  domestic  and  social  life  which 
resulted  from  these  concurrent  influences. 

The  leading  men  at  Quinnipiac,  having  been  engaged 
in  commerce  before  their  emigration,  endeavored  to 
make  their  new  plantation  a  commercial  town.  Trade 
was  soon  established  with  Boston,  New  Amsterdam,  — 
as  New  York  was  then  called,  —  Delaware  Bay,  Vir- 
ginia, Barbadoes,  and  England. 

Supplies  from  the  mother-country  came  chiefly  by 

way  of  Boston  ;  for  the  three  ships  which  in  1639  sailed 

direct  from  England  to  Quinnipiac  were  exceptions  to 

the  custom  that  emigrants  into  New  England  landed  in 

189 


igO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Massachusetts.  If  the  tide  of  emigration  had  not 
ebbed  soon  after  the  settlement  was  made  at  Quinni- 
piac,  ships  from  England  might  have  cast  anchor  in  its 
"fair  haven"  with  such  frequency  as  to  render  the 
plantations  in  the  neighborhood  independent  of  Boston 
as  a  base  of  supplies.  But,  as  it  happened,  small 
vessels  owned  in  New  Haven,  and  navigated  by  her 
seamen,  sailed  frequently  to  and  fro  between  the  two 
ports.  Doubtless  they  sometimes  returned  home 
freighted  with  merchandise  purchased  of  Massachusetts 
men ;  but  there  is  evidence  that  New  Haven  merchants 
exported  and  imported  by  way  of  Boston,  sending  their 
beaver  a^d  other  furs  to  be  transferred  to  the  ships 
which  had  brought  them  English  goods. 

The  diary  of  Winthrop  records  several  such  voyages 
that  were  disastrous,  and  others  that  were  dangerous, 
though  without  fatal  results.  Nicholas  Augur,  one  of 
the  earliest  physicians  at  New  Haven,  occupied  himself 
to  some  extent,  as  did  also  his  colleagues  in  the  practice 
of  medicine,  in  commercial  adventures.  In  1669,  "being 
about  to  sail  for  Boston,"  he  made  his  will,  as  if  he 
regarded  the  voyage  as  exposing  him  to  unusual  peril  of 
his  life.  In  1676  he  made  another  voyage  to  the  same 
port ;  and  on  his  return,  setting  sail  from  Boston  on  the 
tenth  of  September,  he  was  shipwrecked  on  an  uninhab- 
ited island  off  Cape  Sable,  where  he  and  all  his  fellow- 
voyagers  died  except  Ephraim  Howe,  the  captain  of  the 
ketch,  who,  having  endured  great  hardship  during  the 
winter,  was  taken  off  by  a  vessel  in  the  following  sum- 
mer and  carried  to  Salem,  whence  he  returned  to  his 
family  at  New  Haven  after  an  absence  of  nearly  eleven 
months.    The  pinnaces,  shallops,  and  ketches  employed 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  IQI 

in  this  coasting-trade,  carried  letters  and  packages  from 
friend  to  friend ;  seamen  and  passengers  rendering 
such  service  as  is  now  performed  by  express-companies 
and  by  the  postmen  of  the  government.' 

The  trade  with  Manhattan,  as  Fort  Amsterdam  is  at 
first  named  in  the  records,  did  not  apparently  include 
any  great  amount  of  European  supplies :  otherwise  it 
was  in  general  of  similar  character  to  that  maintained 
with  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  Dutch  however,  being 
exempt  from  the  prejudice  against  tobacco  manifested 
by  the  good  people  of  Boston,  the  merchants  of  New 
Haven,  when  they  anchored  at  Fort  Amsterdam  on 
their  return  from  a  southern  voyage,  carried  on  shore 
many  hogsheads  of  this  Virginia  product.  ^  To  the 
same  market  they  conveyed  their  imports  from  the 
West  Indies,  such  as  cotton,  sugar,  molasses,  and 
"  strong  water ; "  completing  a  cargo  with  such  prod- 
ucts of  their  own  neighborhood  as  wheat,  biscuit,  beef, 

'  The  germ  of  a  post-office  appears  in  an  order  of  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  passed  Nov.  5,  1639:  "For  preventing  the  miscarriage  of 
letters,  it  is  ordered,  that  notice  be  given  that  Richard  Fairbanks's  house 
in  Boston  is  the  place  appointed  for  all  letters  which  are  brought  from 
beyond  the  seas,  or  are  to  be  sent  thither,  to  be  brought  unto ;  and  he  is 
to  take  care  that  they  be  delivered  or  sent  according  to  their  direc- 
tions; and  he  is  allowed  for  every  such  letter  one  penny,  and  must  an- 
swer all  miscarriages  through  his  own  neglect  in  this  kind ;  provided  that 
n^  man  shall  be  compelled  to  bring  his  letters  thither,  except  he  please." 

•  Sumptuary  laws  were  early  enacted  in  Massachusetts,  prohibiting  the 
use  of  and  the  traffic  in  tobacco.  These  laws  were  repealed,  in  1637, 
while  the  New  Haven  company  were  sojourning  in  Massachusetts ;  but, 
though  the  prohibitory  laws  were  repealed,  some  of  the  prejudice  which 
led  to  their  enactment  must  have  remained.  The  only  law  regulating  the 
use  of  tobacco,  at  New  Haven,  was  one  passed  by  the  general  court  for 
the  jurisdiction  in  reference  to  danger  from  fire. 


192  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

pork,  hides,  and  furs.  It  is  not  so  evident  what  they 
received  in  return ;  but  probably  the  trade  between  the 
two  towns  was  chiefly  an  exchange  of  merchandise  for 
the  supply  of  whatever  articles  might  be  temporarily 
scarce  and  dear  in  either  market.  The  Dutch  at  one 
time  attempted  to  discriminate  between  their  own 
shipping  and  that  of  their  English  neighbors,  requiring 
the  latter  to  anchor  under  "  an  erected  hand,"  and  to 
pay  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  ten  per  cent  on  all  imports 
and  exports ;  but  were  shamed  into  reciprocity  by  the 
sharp  pen  of  Gov.  Eaton,  backed  by  the  commissioners 
of  the  United  Colonies. 

Stephen  Goodyear,  who  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
commerce  between  the  towns  often  visited  Fort  Am- 
sterdam, purchased  there  of  the  Dutch  governor  a  ship 
called  the  ZwoU,  to  be  delivered  in  the  harbor  of 
New  Haven. '  Under  pretext  of  conveying  the  ship  in 
safety,  the  Dutch  put  soldiers  on  board,  who  on  a 
Sunday  boarded  and  seized  the  St.  Beninio,  a  Dutch 
vessel  lying  in  the  harbor  of  New  Haven,  and  carried 
her  away  to  Fort  Amsterdam,  where  the  vessel  was 
confiscated  as  a  smuggler,  the  owner  having  evaded 
payment  of  certain  duties  or  "recognitions'*  claimed 
by  his  government.  William  Westerhouse,  who  owned 
the  vessel,  and  Samuel  Goodenhouse,  another  Dutch 
merchant  in  some  way  implicated  in  the  business,  were 
then  sojourning  at  New  Haven,  and,  finding  it  more 
agreeable  to  remain  than  to  follow  the  vessel  which 
had  been  seized,  placed  themselves  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  court,  and  became  permanent  residents. 
The  settlement  at  New  Haven  of  these  strangers 
served    to  abate  somewhat    the  commercial  discour- 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  I93 

agement  consequent  on  a  succession  of  losses.  The  ac- 
quisition of  Westerhouse  was  additionally  pleasing,  be- 
cause he  was  not  only  a  merchant,  but  a  practitioner  of 
medicine.  Not  long  after  he  became  a  citizen,  he  in- 
trusted a  cask  of  liquor  to  John  Lawrencson  to  be 
retailed.  Some  disorder  having  attracted  attention,  a 
fine  was  imposed  upon  Lawrencson  for  "selling  strong 
waters  by  small  quantities,"  contrary  to  an  order  of 
the  court.  Westerhouse,  hearing  of  it,  "  acquainted  the 
court  through  Mr.  Evance,  his  interpreter,  that  he 
knew  it  not  to  be  an  offence  to  the  court  that  he  em- 
ployed any  to  sell  his  strong  water,  but  seeing  he  had 
done  it  he  justified  the  court  in  the  fine  they  had  laid, 
and  he  came  to  tender  the  payment.  The  court  told 
him  they  looked  not  upon  it  as  his  fault,  for  they 
intended  not  to  fine  him  ;  but,  seeing  he  would  pay  it, 
the  court  considering  how  useful  he  had  been  in  the 
town  by  giving  physic  to  many  persons,  and  to  some 
of  them  freely,  the  court  agreed  not  to  take  the  fine, 
but  returned  it  to  him  again." 

Within  three  years  after  the  foundations  of  govern- 
ment had  been  laid  at  New  Haven,  **  there  was  a  pur- 
chase made  by  some  particular  persons  of  sundry  plan- 
tations in  Delaware  Bay,  at  their  own  charge,  for  the 
advancement  of  public  good,  as  in  a  way  of  trade,  so  also 
for  the  settling  of  churches  and  plantations  in  those 
parts  in  combination  with  this.  And  thereupon  it  was 
propounded  to  the  general  court,  whether  plantations 
should  be  settled  in  Delaware  Bay  in  combination  with 
this  town,  —  yea  or  nay ;  and,  upon  consideration  and 
debate,  it  was  assented  unto  by  the  court,  and  expressed 


194  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

by  holding  up  of  hands."  This  attempt  to  establish  an 
English  settlement  in  Delaware  Bay  encountered  oppo- 
sition from  the  Dutch  and  from  the  Swedes,  both  of 
whom  claimed  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  those  waters, 
and,  though  contending  one  with  the  other,  united  in 
resisting  the  English.  In  1642  the  governor  of  New 
Amsterdam  "  despatched  an  armed  force,  and  with  great 
hostility  burned  the  English  trading-houses,  violently 
seized  and  for  a  time  detained  their  goods,  and  would 
not  give  them  time  to  take  an  inventory  of  them.  The 
Dutch  also  took  the  company's  boat,  and  a  number  of 
the  English  planters  whom  they  kept  as  prisoners. 
The  damages  done  to  the  English  at  Delaware  were 
estimated  at  a  thousand  pounds  sterling."  ' 

The  same  year  the  Swedish  governor  seized  and 
imprisoned  George  Lamberton,  "master  of  the  pin- 
nace called  the  Cock,"  and  some  of  his  seamen,  on  a 
false  charge  of  inciting  the  Indians  to  rise  against 
the  Swedes.  Finding  himself  unable  to  support  the 
charge,  he  improved  the  opportunity  to  impose  a  fine 
for  trading  at  Delaware,  though  within  the  limits  of  the 
New  Haven  purchase.  Not  long  after,  Mr.  Lamberton, 
happening  to  be  at  New  Amsterdam,  was  compelled  by 
the  Dutch  governor  to  give  an  account  of  all  the  beaver 
he  had  purchased  at  the  New  Haven  trading-post  in 
Delaware  Bay,  and  to  pay  an  impost  upon  the  whole. 

The  next  year.  New  Haven  becoming  confederate 
with  the  other  New  England  colonies,  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  United  Colonies  sent  letters  of  remon- 
strance to  the  Dutch  and  the  Swedes,  and  gave  Lam- 
berton   a    commission    to    treat    with    the    Swedish 

» Trumbull 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  I9S 

governor  in  their  name  about  satisfaction  for  the  in- 
juries done  him,  and  about  the  settlement  of  an  English 
plantation  in  Delaware  Bay. 

The  settlement  of  a  plantation  was  delayed,  however, 
from  one  year  to  another,  till,  in  1651,  a  company  of 
about  fifty  men,  chiefly  from  New  Haven  and  Totoket, 
afterwards  called  Branford,  started  on  a  voyage  for 
Delaware  Bay  with  the  intention  of  beginning  the  plan- 
tation so  long  kept  in  abeyance.  Bearing  a  commis- 
sion from  Gov.  Eaton,  and  letters  from  him  and  from 
the  governor  of  Massachusetts  to  the  Dutch  governor, 
explaining  their  intention,  and  assuring  him  that  they 
would  settle  upon  their  own  lands  only  and  give  no 
disturbance  to  their  neighbors,  they  came  to  anchor 
at  New  Amsterdam,  and  sent  their  letters  on  shore. 
"  But  no  sooner  had  Gov.  Stuyvesant  received  the  letters 
than  he  arrested  the  bearers,  and  committed  them  close 
prisoners  under  guard.  Then  sending  for  the  master  of 
the  vessel  to  come  on  shore,  that  he  might  speak  with 
him,  he  arrested  and  committed  him.  Others,  as  they 
came  on  shore  to  visit  and  assist  their  neighbors,  were 
confined  with  them.  The  Dutch  governor  desired  to  see 
their  commission,  promising  it  should  be  returned  when 
he  had  taken  a  copy.  But,  when  it  was  demanded  of 
him,  he  would  not  return  it  to  them.  Nor  would  he 
release  the  men  from  confinement  until  he  had  forced 
them  to  give  it  under  their  hands  that  they  would  not 
prosecute  their  voyage,  but,  without  loss  of  time,  return 
to  New  Haven.  He  threatened,  that,  if  he  should  after- 
wards find  any  of  them  at  Delaware,  he  would  not  only 
seize  their  goods,  but  send  them  prisoners  into  Hol- 
land." ' 

«  TrumbulL 


196  HISTORY  OF  KEIV  HAVEN  COLOXV. 

Three  years  later,  as  appears  from  the  following  ex- 
tract from  the  records,  another  attempt  was  made : — 

"At  a  general  court  for  the  town  of  New  Haven,  Nov.  2,  1654, 
the  governor  read  a  letter  he  wrote  on  the  6th  of  July,  by  order 
of  the  general  court,  to  the  Swedish  governor,  with  his  answer  in 
Latin,  dated  Aug.  i,  and  the  answer  of  the  commissioners  to 
that,  dated  Sept.  23.  At  the  same  time  he  informed  them,  that, 
while  attending  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners  at  Hartford, 
several  had  spoken  with  him  in  reference  to  settling  at  Delaware 
Bay,  if  it  might  be  planted.  The  town  was  desired  to  consider 
which  way  it  may  be  carried  on.  After  much  debate  about  it,  and 
scarce  any  manifesting  their  willingness  to  go  at  present,  a  com- 
mittee was  chosen;  viz.,  Robert  Seely,' William  Davis,  Thomas 
Munson,  and  Thomas  Jeffrey,  to  whom  any  that  are  willing  to  go 
may  repair  to  be  taken  notice  of,  and  that,  if  there  be  cause,  they 
treat  with  those  of  New  Haven  who  have  purchased  those  lands,  to 
know  what  consideration  they  expect  for  them.'' 

**  On  the  27th  of  November  the  committee  reported  that  they 
had  spoken  with  sundry  persons  in  the  town,  but  that  not  answer- 
ing expectation,  they  got  a  meeting  of  the  brethren  and  neigh- 
bors, and  for  the  most  part  they  were  willing  to  help  forward  the 
work,  some  in  person,  others  in  estate,  so  the  work  might  be 
carried  on  and  foundations  laid  according  to  God:  and  at  that 
meeting  they  desired  that  the  governor  and  one  of  the  magis- 
trates, with  one  or  both  the  elders,  might  by  their  persons  help 
forward  that  work,  whereupon  they  had  a  church-meeting,  and 
propounded  their  desire.  The  elders  declared  they  were  willing 
to  further  the  work,  and  glad  it  was  in  hand:  but  Mr.  Davenport 
said  in  reference  to  his  health,  he  sees  not  his  way  clear  to  engage 
in  it  in  person;  nor  Mr.  Hooke,  because  his  wife  is  gone  for 
England,  and  he  knows  not  how  God  will  dispose  of  her.  The 
governor  gave  no  positive  answer,  but  said  it  was  worthy  of  con- 
sideration.*' 

"  They  further  informed  that  some  from  other  plantations  see 
a  need  of  the  work,  and  are  willing  to  engage  in  it.  and  the  rather 
if  it  be  begun  by  New  Haven,  and  foundations  laid  as  here,  and 
government  so  carried  on,  thinking  it  will  be  for  the  good  of  them 
and  their  posterity." 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  I97 

"  They  also  declared  that  they  had  treated  with  the  proprietors 
about  the  purchase  of  the  land,  and  understand  that  they  are  out 
above  six  hundred  pounds,  but  are  willing  to  take  three  hundred 
pounds  to  be  paid  in  four  years." 

Mr.  Samuel  Eaton '  and  Mr.  Francis  Newman,  being 
invited  to  go  with  the  company  as  magistrates,  took  the 
matter  into  consideration,  and  on  the  4th  of  December 
signified  their  conditional  assent.  At  a  general  court 
for  the  jurisdiction,  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  the  following 
January,  a  petition  was  presented  on  behalf  of  a  com- 
pany of  persons  intending  to  remove  to  Delaware  Ba}% 
wherein  they  propounded  that  the  Court  "  would  afford 
some  encouragement  to  help  forward  so  public  a  work." 
The  Court  returned  answer  :  — 

"I.  That  they  are  willing  so  Sar  to  deny  themselves  for  the  fur- 
therance of  that  work  in  order  to  the  ends  propounded,  as  to  grant 
liberty  to  one  or  both  of  those  magistrates  mentioned  to  go  along 
with  them,  who,  with  such  other  fit  persons  as  this  court  shall  see 
meet  to  join  with  them,  may  be  empowered  for  managing  of  all  mat- 
ters of  civil  government  there,  according  to  such  commission  as 
shall  be  given  them  by  this  court." 

"  2.  That  they  will  either  take  the  propriety  of  all  the  purchased 
lands  into  their  own  hands,  or  leave  it  to  such  as  shall  undertake 
the  planting  of  it,  provided  that  it  be  and  remain  a  part  or  member 
of  this  jurisdiction.     And  for  their  encouragement  they  purpose 

*  The  person  here  intended  was  a  son  of  Theophilus  Eaton  by  his  first 
wife.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1649.  1"  April,  1654,  the 
people  of  New  Haven,  "  hearing  that  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  son  of  our  gov- 
ernor, is  now  sent  for  into  the  Bay,  which,  if  attended  to,  they  feared  they 
may  be  deprived,  not  only  for  the  present,  but  for  the  future,  of  the  help- 
fulness which  they  have  hoped  for  from  him,  and  considering  the  small 
number  of  first  able  helps  here  for  the  work  of  magistracy  for  the 
present,  who  also  by  age  are  wearing  away,"  induced  him  to  remain  with 
them  by  offering  to  elect  him  magistrate.  He  was  accordingly  elected,  and 
had  now  been  in  office  about  six  months. 


198  HISTORY  OF  ISTEIV  HAVEN  COLOXY, 

when  God  shall  so  enlarge  the  English  plantations  in  Delaware  as 
that  they  shall  grow  the  greater  part  of  the  jurisdiction,  that  then 
due  consideration  shall  be  taken  for  the  ease  and  conveniency  of 
both  parts,  as  that  the  governor  may  be  one  year  in  one  part  and 
the  next  year  in  another,  and  the  deput}*  governor  to  be  in  that 
part  where  the  governor  is  not,  and  that  general  courts  for  making 
laws  may  be  ordinarily  but  once  a  year,  and  where  the  governor 
resides ;  and  if  God  much  increase  plantations  in  Dela^-are,  and 
diminish  them  in  these  parts,  then  possibly  they  may  see  cause 
that  the  governor  may  be  constantly  there  and  the  deputy  governor 
here,  but  that  the  lesser  part  of  the  jurisdiction  be  protected  and 
eased  by  the  greater  part,  both  in  rates  and  othenii-ise,  which  they 
conceive  will  be  both  acceptable  to  God  and  (as  appears  by  the 
conclusions  of  the  commissioners  anno  165 1)  most  satisfying  to 
the  rest  of  the  United  Colonies." 

"  3.  That  for  the  matters  of  charge  propounded  for  encourage- 
ment to  be  given  or  lent,  to  help  on  their  first  beginnings,  they  will 
propound  the  things  to  the  several  particular  plantations,  and  pro- 
mote the  business  for  procuring  something  that  way,  and  shall 
return  their  answer  with  all  convenient  speed." 

A  special  messenger  was  sent  to  Massachusetts  in 
hope  of  securing  recruits  from  that  colony ;  for  at  a 
general  court  for  the  town  of  New  Haven  held  on  the 
1 6th  of  the  following  March:  — 

"  The  town  was  informed  that  the  occasion  of  this  meeting  is  to 
let  them  understand  how  things  are  at  present  concerning  Delaware, 
now  John  Cooper  is  returned.  He  finds  little  encouragement  in  the 
Bay,  few  being  willing  to  engage  in  it  at  present,  and  therefore  they 
may  consider  whether  to  carry  it  on  themselves  or  to  let  it  fall. 
Mr.  Goodyear  said,  notwithstanding  the  discouragements  from  the 
Bay,  if  a  considerable  company  appear  that  will  go,  he  will  adven- 
ture his  person  and  estate  to  go  with  them  in  that  design :  but  a 
report  of  three  ships  being  come  to  the  Swedes,  seems  to  make  the 
business  more  difficult  After  much  debate  about  it,  it  was  voted 
by  the  town  in  this  case,  that  they  will  be  at  twenty  or  thirty  pounds 
charge ;  that  Mr.  Goodyear,  Sergeant  Jeffrey,  and  such  other  as  they 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  I99 

may  think  fit  to  take  with  them,  may  go  to  Delaware,  and  carry  the 
commissioners'  letter,  and  treat  with  the  Swedes  about  a  peaceable 
settlement  of  the  English  upon  their  own  right ;  and  then  after  har- 
vest, if  things  be  cleared  the  company  may  resort  thither  for  the 
planting  of  it." 

On  the  9th  of  April  (1655) :  — 

"  The  town  was  informed  that  there  were  several  who  have  pur- 
poses to  go,  but  they  conceive  they  want  number  of  men  and  estate 
to  carry  it  on  ;  now  if  any  be  willing  to  further  it  in  person  or  estate, 
they  may  do  well  to  declare  it.  It  having  been  first  made  known 
to  them,  that,  though  they  may  go  free  and  not  engaged  to  be  a 
part  of  this  jurisdiction,  yet  they  and  all  such  as  come  after  must 
engage  upon  the  same  foundations  of  government  as  were  at  first 
laid  at  New  Haven,  which  were  now  read  unto  them,  and  though 
some  objections  were  made,  yet  notwithstanding  the  business  pro- 
ceeded, and  divers  declared  themselves  willing  to  further  it." 

"  And  for  their  further  encouragement  the  town  granted,  if  any 
go  and  leave  none  in  their  family  fit  to  watch,  their  wives  shall  not 
be  put  upon  the  trouble  and  charge  to  hire  a  watchman,  the  persons 
only  which  are  present  being  to  carry  on  that  service.  They  also 
further  agreed  to  lend  the  company  the  two  small  guns  which  are 
the  town's,  or  else  one  of  them  and  one  of  the  bigger,  if  they  can 
procure  leave  of  the  jurisdiction  for  it,  with  at  least  half  a  hundred 
of  shot  for  that  bigger  gun  if  they  have  it,  and  a  meet  proportion 
of  musket  bullets,  according  to  what  the  town  hath,  and  also  a 
barrel  of  that  powder  which  the  town  bought  of  Mr.  Evance.  And 
concerning  their  houses  and  lands  which  they  leave,  what  of  them 
lieth  unimproved  shall  be  freed  from  all  rates  one  year  and  a  half 
from  the  time  they  leave  them,  paying  as  now  they  do  for  what  they 
improve.  Then  they  shall  have  one  year's  time  more,  that  they 
shall  pay  but  one  penny  an  acre  for  fenced  land  and  meadow  as 
they  do  at  present." 

The  project  for  establishing  a  plantation  at  Delaware 
Bay  was  never  carried  into  execution  ;  but  the  agitation 
of  it  for  fourteen  years  not  only  evinces  great  interest 


200  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

in  that  particular  region,  springing  out  of  and  nurtured 
by  the  voyages  of  New  Haven  merchants,  but  illustrates 
the  extent  to  which  the  commercial  spirit  ruled  in  New 
Haven.  It  shows  us  a  people,  who,  having  become  sat- 
isfied that  they  could  never  in  their  present  home  see 
their  wishes  fulfilled,  were  looking  for  new  shores, 
where,  "foundations  being  laid  as  here,  and  govern- 
ment so  carried  on,"  the  younger  plantation  might  be- 
come "the  greater  part  of  the  jurisdiction." 

It  is  not  impertinent  here  to  obser\'e  that  during  this 
agitation  of  the  people  of  New  Haven  about  a  removal 
to  Delaware,  two  attempts  were  made  by  Cromwell  to 
divert  their  attention  to  other  places.  Hutchinson 
says,  "  Cromwell  had  been  very  desirous  of  drawing  off 
the  New  Englanders  to  people  Ireland  after  his  suc- 
cesses there  ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven  had 
serious  thoughts  of  removing,  but  did  not  carry  their 
design  into  execution."  In  another  place  he  says,  of 
the  New  Haven  people,  "They  had  offers  from  Ireland 
after  the  wars  were  over,  and  were  in  treaty  for  the 
purchase  of  lands  there  for  a  small  distinct  province  by 
themselves."  Mather  says,  "They  entered  into  some 
treaties  about  the  city  of  Galway,  which  they  were  to 
have  had  as  a  small  province  to  themselves."  If  any 
formal  action  was  taken  at  New  Haven  on  the  proposal 
of  Cromwell,  it  was  probably  taken  by  the  jurisdiction, 
whose  records  from  1644  to  1653  have  been  lost.'  Five 
years  afterward  the  Lord  Protector,  having  taken  the 

'  In  Ellis's  Collection  of  Original  Letters  Illustrative  of  English  His- 
tory is  a  letter  of  certain  ministers  and  others  in  New  England  replying  to 
and  entertaining  Cromwell's  proposal.  None  of  the  signers  are  New 
Haven  men.    Its  date  is  Dec.  31,  1650. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  201 

island  of  Jamaica  from  the  Spaniards,  offered  a  portion 
of  it  to  the  people  of  New  Haven.  A  letter  of  instruc- 
tions for  Daniel  Gookin,  bound  for  New  England,  is  still 
extant  in  the  State  Paper  Office  at  London,  dated 
Sept.  26,  1655.  According  to  the  epitome  prepared  for 
the  calendar  published  by  authority,  he  is  instructed  :  — 

"  To  acquaint  the  governors  and  inhabitants  in  New  England 
that  the  English  army  took  possession  of  Jamaica  on  the  loth  of 
May  last :  to  describe  the  situation  and  goodness  of  the  island,  the 
plenty  of  horses  and  cattle,  and  the  convenience  of  the  harbors, 
which  are  now  being  fortified  by  the  English  :  that  there  are  about 
seven  thousand  well  armed  men  there,  besides  eight  hunded  more 
lately  sent  over  with  Major  Robert  Sedgwick,  a  commissioner  in 
the  civil  affairs  of  the  island ;  and  that  it  is  intended  to  defend  the 
place  against  all  attempts,  and  to  have  a  good  fleet  always  in  those 
seas  :  to  offer  to  the  people  of  New  England  to  remove  to  Jamaica, 
in  convenient  numbers,  for  certain  specified  reasons,  viz.,  to  en- 
lighten those  parts  (a  chief  end  of  our  undertaking  the  design)  by 
people  who  know  and  fear  the  Lord,  and  that  those  of  New  England, 
driven  from  the  land  of  their  nativity  into  that  desert  and  barren 
wilderness  for  conscience'  sake,  may  remove  to  a  land  of  plenty : 
to  make  these  propositions  to  the  people  of  New  Haven,  who  have 
thoughts  of  removing  to  Delaware  Bay,  viz.,  that  a  part  of  the 
island  next  to  some  good  harbor  will  be  granted  to  them  and  their 
heirs  forever  without  payment  of  rent  for  seven  years,  and  then  one 
penny  an  acre  ;  their  goods  of  the  growth  and  manufacture  of  the 
island  shall  be  three  years  free  from  customs  ;  one  of  their  number 
to  be  from  time  to  time  appointed  governor  and  commander-in-chief, 
with  persons  to  assist  in  the  management  of  affairs ;  six  ships  will 
be  sent  for  their  transportation  ;  twenty  acres  granted  to  every  male 
above  twelve  years  old,  and  ten  to  every  other  male  or  female,  six 
weeks  after  the  agreement  is  concluded ;  the  whole  number  of 
males  to  be  transported  within  two  years." 

It  does  not  appear  from  the  records  whether  the  pro- 
ject of  removing  to  Delaware  Bay  had  been  abandoned 


202  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

before  this  offer  of  -Cromwell  reached  New  Haven,  or 
whether  it  gave  place  to  his  proposal  of  Jamaica ;  but 
his  offer  was  at  first  favorably  entertained.  When  it 
had  been  before  the  people  for  consideration  about  three 
weeks,  the  governor  desiring  the  town  at  a  meeting 
held  May  19,  1656,  to  give  an  answer:  — 

"  Lieut.  John  Nash  spoke  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  mind 
of  the  generality  of  the  town,  viz.,  That  they  conceive  it  is  a  work  of 
God,  and  that  it  should  be  encouraged,  and  if  they,  see  meet  per- 
sons go  before  them,  that  is,  engage  in  the  design  to  go  with  them, 
or  quickly  after,  fit  to  carry  on  the  work  of  Christ  in  commonwealth 
and  also  in  church  afEairs,  they  are  free,  and  will  attend'  the 
providence  of  God  in  it :  provided  that  they  have  further  encourage- 
ment, both  of  the  healthf  ulness  of  the  place  and  a  prosperous  going 
on  of  the  war,  that  other  places  thereabouts  be  taken,  with  what 
also  Richard  Miles  may  bring  from  Capt.  Martin.  And  that  this 
i*'as  the  town's  mind,  they  all  declared  by  vote." 

On  the  28th  of  the  same  month  the  matter  was 
brought  before  the  General  Court  for  the  jurisdiction, 
where  a  copy  of  the  instructions  given  by  his  Highness 
the  Lord  Protector  to  Capt.  Gookin  was  read,  with 
letters  from  Capt.  Gookin  and  letters  from  Major  Sedg- 
wick from  Jamaica,  and  the  intelligence  which  Richard 
Miles  (who  by  this  time  had  arrived  home)  "brought 
from  Capt.  Martin,  to  whom  he  was  sent  to  inquire." 
"  The  deputies  from  the  several  plantations  were  desired 
to  let  the  Court  understand  what  is  the  mind  of  their 
towns  in  this  business."  "  Much  debate  there  was  about 
this  thing,  and  a  serious  weighing  and  considering 
thereof."  The  proposal  received  less  favor  in  this 
assembly  than  it  had  in  the  town-meeting  at  New  Haven. 
Perhaps  the  other  plantations,  where  husbandry  was  the 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  203 

principal  occupation,  did  not  feel  so  much  need  of  a 
change  as  New  Haven  felt :  perhaps  the  intelligence 
which  Deacon  Miles  brought,  had  affected  unfavorably 
even  the  New  Haven  people.  The  conclusion  to  which 
the  General  Court  of  the  jurisdiction  came  was : 
"  Though  they  cannot  but  acknowledge  the  great  love, 
care,  and  tender  respect  of  his  Highness  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector to  New  England  in  general,  and  to  this  colony 
in  particular,  yet  for  divers  reasons  they  cannot  conclude 
that  God  calls  them  to  a  present  remove.*' 

The  disposition  to  find  a  place  more  favorably  situated 
for  commerce,  seems  from  this  time  to  have  yielded  to 
a  purpose  to  make  the  best  of  the  opportunities  afforded 
by  New  Haven,  and  to  a  willingness  so  to  modify  the 
original  intention  of  the  planters  that  the  town  should 
be  less  dependent  on  commerce,  and  give  more  attention 
to  agriculture,  than  was  at  first  expected. 

In  the  attempt  to  write  the  history  of  commerce  with 
Delaware  Bay,  we  have  been  led  into  a  history  of  the 
efforts  to  connect  with  that  commerce  the  establish- 
ment there,  of  a  plantation  under  the  New  Haven 
colonial  government.  Such  a  relation  is,  however, 
pertinent  to  the  subject,  for  these  efforts  grew  out  of 
the  commerce  which  New  Haven  merchants  prosecuted 
between  the  two  places. 

Of  the  commerce  itself  there  is  much  less  to  record 
than  we  have  written  of  these  futile  attempts  to  estab- 
lish at  Delaware  Bay  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven 
and  of  England.  The  traffic  was  carried  on  by  a  cor- 
poration which  owned  two  large  tracts  of  land  lying  — 
one  on  each  side  of  the  bay  —  above  the  Swedish  forts. 
On  one  of  these  parcels  of  land  was  a  trading-house 


204  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

where  agents  of  the  company  remained  to  traffic  with 
the  Indians,  and  collect  beaver  and  other  pelts  to  be 
sent  home  by  the  vessels  which  from  time  to  time 
came  into  the  bay. 

In  their  traffic  with  Virginia  the  New  Haven  mer 
chants  traded  with  the  English  planters,  and  not  with 
the  aborigines  as  at  Delaware.  Tobacco  was  the 
staple  export  of  Virginia,  but  they  brought  away  in 
addition,  store  of  beaver  which  the  planters  had  pur- 
chased of  the  Indians.  In  exchange  for  these  commodi- 
ties they  left  with  the  Virginians  supplies  brought  from 
England  and  from  Barbadoes,  as  well  as  from  home. 
The  following  extract  from  the  record  of  a  general 
court  for  the  jurisdiction  is  illustrative:  — 

"Mr.  Allerton,  Ensign  Bryan,  and  Mr.  Augur  appeared  and 
kiformed  the  court,  that,  by  reason  of  bad  biscuit  and  flour  they 
have  had  from  James  Rogers  of  Milford,  they  have  suffered  much 
damage,  and  likewise  the  place  lies  under  reproach  at  Virginia  and 
Barbadoes,  so  as  when  other  men  from  other  places  can  have  a 
ready  market  for  their  goods,  that  from  hence  lies  by  and  will  not 
sell,  or  if  it  do,  it  is  for  little  above  half  so  much  as  others  sell  for ; 
they  desire,  therefore,  that  some  course  may  be  taken  to  remedy  this 
grievance.  The  court  approved  of  their  proposition,  and  thought 
it  a  thing  very  just  and  necessary  to  be  done,  and  sent  for  the  baker 
and  miller  from  Milford,  who  also  appeared,  and,  after  some  debate, 
did  confess  there  had  been  formerly  some  miscarriages.  The  baker 
imputed  it,  or  a  great  part  of  it,  to  the  miller^s  grinding  his  com  so 
badly,  which  the  miller  now  acknowledgeth  might  be  through  want 
of  skill,  but  he  hopes  now  it  is  and  will  be  better,  which  the  baker 
owned ;  and,  as  Mr.  Allerton  now  informed  his  bread  is  at  present 
better,  after  much  debate  about  this  business,  James  Rogers  was 
told,  that  if,  after  this  warning,  his  flour  or  bread  prove  bad,  he 
must  expect  that  the  damage  will  fall  upon  him,  unless  it  may  be 
proved  that  the  defectiveness  of  it  came  by  some  other  means." 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  205 

The  first  mention  of  commerce  between  New  Haven 
and  Barbadoes  occurs  in  a  letter  written  by  Deputy- 
Gov.  Goodyear,  advising  Gov.  Stuyvesant  of  the  deliv- 
ery of  beef,  which  Goodyear  had  contracted  to  deliver 
upon  demand,  probably  in  payment  for  the  ship  which 
the  Dutch  governor  had  sent  to  him  at  New  Haven. 
The  Dutch  commissary  having  come  for  the  beef  at 
a  time  inopportune  for  Goodyear,  the  latter  writes : 
"I  was  necessitated  to  furnish  a  great  part  out  of 
what  I  had  provided  for  the  Barbadoes  ;  but  my  en- 
deavors are  and  shall  be  to  my  utmost  to  perform 
my  covenants  in  all  things.  I  desire  we  may  attend 
peace  and  neighborly  love  and  correspondency  one 
with  another."  This  letter  dated  Nov.  22,  1647,  must 
have  been  written  at  a  very  early  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  trade  with  Barbadoes ;  for  sugar,  the  prin- 
cipal product  of  that  island,  began  to  be  exported  to 
England  in  1646.  At  a  court  held  Dec.  7,  1647, 
"  Stephen  Reekes,  master  of  a  vessel  that  came  from 
the  Barbadoes,  was  called  before  the  court  to  answer 
for  some  miscarriages  of  his  on  the  sabbath  day, 
viz. :  that  he,  the  said  Stephen,  did,  contrary  to  the 
law  of  God,  and  of  this  place,  haul  up  his  ship  to  or 
towards  the  neck-bridge  upon  the  sabbath,  which  is  a 
labor  proper  for  the  six  days,  and  not  to  be  under- 
taken on  the  Lord's  day."  As  Mr.  Reekes  was  ex- 
cused on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  stranger,  and  **did 
not  do  it  out  of  contempt  but  ignorantly,"  it  is  evi- 
dent that  vessels  not  owned  in  New  Haven  partici- 
pated thus  early  in  transporting  hither  the  products  of 
Barbadoes.  In  1651  Mr.  Goodyear  sold  Shelter  Island, 
which  he  had  owned  about  ten  years,  for  "  sixteen  hun- 


206  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

dred  pounds  of  good,  merchantable,  muscovado  sugar.* 
One  of  the  purchasers  certainly  was  a  resident  of  Bar 
badoes,  and  apparently  two  others ;  so  that  it  may  be 
presumed  that  the  sugar  was  delivered  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  brought  away  by  Goodyear  in  his  own  ship. 
To  illustrate  further  the  use  made  of  this  product  of 
Barbadoes  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  reference  is  made 
to  the  fact  already  mentioned,  that  Lieut.  Budd  sold  his 
house  in  New  Haven  for  a  hogshead  of  sugar. 

A  more  interesting  illustration  is  that  which  Dr. 
Bacon  thus  records  in  his  Historical  Discourses :  "  In 
the  year  1665,  on  the  day  of  the  anniversary  thanks- 
giving, a  contribution  was  'given  in'  for  *the  saints 
that  were  in  want  in  England.'  This  was  at  the  time 
when,  in  that  country,  so  many  ministers,  ejected  from 
their  places  of  settlement,  were,  by  a  succession  of 
enactments,  studiously  cut  off  from  all  means  of  obtain- 
ing bread  for  themselves,  their  wives,  and  their  chil- 
dren. The  contribution  was  made,  as  almost  all  pay- 
ments of  debts  or  of  taxes  were  made  at  that  period,  in 
grain  and  other  commodities  ;  there  being  no  money  in 
circulation,  and  no  banks  by  which  credit  could  be  con- 
verted into  currency.  It  was  paid  over  to  the  deacons 
in  the  February  following.  We,  to  whom  it  is  so  easy, 
in  the  present  state  of  commerce,  to  reniit  the  value  of 
any  contribution  to  almost  any  part  of  the  world,  can- 
not easily  imagine  the  circuitous  process  by  which  that 
contribution  reached  the  'poor  saints'  whom  it  was 
intended  to  relieve.  By  the  deacons,  the  articles  con- 
tributed were  probably  first  exchanged  to  some  extent 

'  "Muscovado,  The  name  given  to  unrefined  or  moist  sugar."  — 
Brandt  V  Dictionary, 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  20/ 

for  Other  commodities  more  suitable  for  exportation. 
Then,  the  amount  was  sent  to  Barbadoes,  with  which 
island  the  merchants  of  this  place  had  intercourse, 
and  was  exchanged  for  sugars,  which  were  thence  sent 
to  England,  to  the  care  of  four  individuals,  two  of  whom 
were  Mr.  Hooke  the  former  teacher,  and  Mr.  Newman 
the  ruling  elder,  of  this  church.  In  1671  Mr.  Hooke, 
in  a  letter  to  the  church,  said,  *  Mr.  Caryl,  Mr.  Barker, 
Mr.  Newman,  and  myself  have  received  sugars  from 
Barbadoes  to  the  value  of  about  ninety  pounds,  and 
have  disposed  of  it  to  several  poor  ministers,  and  min- 
isters' widows.  And  this  fruit  of  your  bounty  is  very 
thankfully  received  and  acknowledged  by  us.'  " 

Commerce  between  New  Haven  and  the  mother- 
country  was  chiefly  carried  on  by  way  of  Boston  and 
Barbadoes.  Bills  of  exchange  on  London  were  pur- 
chased with  beaver-skins  and.  other  products  of  New 
England  exported  from  Boston,  or  with  sugar  pro- 
cured by  barter  in  Barbadoes.  The  funds  thus  ob- 
tained were  invested  in  English  goods,  sometimes  by 
the  New  Haven  merchants  in  person  when  visiting 
their  native  land,  but  usually  by  their  correspondents 
residing  in  London.  These  English  goods  were  sent 
out  in  the  ships  which  sailed  every  spring  for  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  and  at  Boston  were  re-shipped  to  New 
Haven. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  three  vessels,  which  in 
1639  came  to  New  Haven  direct  from  England.  We 
have  now  to  speak  of  an  attempt  made  at  New  Haven 
to  establish  at  a  later  date  a  direct  trade  with  the 
mother-country.    Such  an  achievement  was  regarded  as 


208  HISTORY  OF  XEIV  HAVEN  COLOXY, 

beyond  the  ability  of  any  individual,  and  yet  so  desira- 
ble as  to  demand  a  general  combination  of  effort.  A 
company  was  formed,  in  which  apparently  all  who  were 
able  to  help,  took  more  or  less  stock.  This  company, 
called  "  The  Ship  Fellowship,"  bought  or  built  a  ship 
which  they  made  ready  for  sea  in  January,  1646. 
She  was  chartered  for  a  voyage  to  London,  by  another 
association  called  "The  Company  of  Merchants  of 
New  Haven."  The  feoffees  of  the  ship-fellowship 
were  "  Mr.  Wakeman,  Mr.  Atwater,  Mr.  Crane,  and 
Goodman  Miles."  The  company  of  merchants  con- 
sisted of  "  Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton  ( now  governor ),  Mr. 
Stephen  Goodyear,  Mr.  Richard  Malbon,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Gregson."  Winthrop  says,  "She  was  laden 
with  pease  and  some  wheat,  all  in  bulk,  with  about 
two  hundred  West  India  hides,  and  store  of  beaver  and 
plate,  so  as  it  was  estimated  in  all  at  five  thousand 
pounds."  Seventy  persons  embarked  in  her,  some  of 
whom  were  counted  among  the  most  valued  inhabitants 
of  New  Haven.  Dr.  Bacon  has  graphically  depicted 
the  departure  of  the  vessel,  and  the  solicitude  felt  for 
her  safety  by  those  whom  she  left  behind.  "  In  the 
month  of  January,  1646,  the  harbor  being  frozen  over, 
a  passage  is  cut  through  the  ice,  with  saws,  for  three 
miles ;  and  *  the  great  ship '  on  which  so  much  de- 
pends is  out  upon  the  waters  and  ready  to  begin  her 
voyage.  Mr.  Davenport  and  a  great  company  of  the 
people  go  out  upon  the  ice,  to  give  the  last  farewell 
to  their  friends.  The  pastor  in  solemn  prayer  com- 
mends them  to  the  protection  of  God,  and  they  depart. 
The  winter  passes  away ;  the  ice-bound  harbor  breaks 
into  ripples  before  the   soft  breezes   of    the  spring. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  2O9 

Vessels  from  England  arrive  on  the  coast ;  but  they 
bring  no  tidings  of  the  New  Haven  ship.  Vain  is  the 
solicitude  of  wives  and  children,  of  kindred  and  friends. 
Vain  are  all  inquiries. 

*They  ask  the  waves,  and  ask  the  felon  winds, 
And  question  every  gust  of  rugged  wings     * 
That  blows  from  off  each  beaked  promontory.' 

"  Month  after  month,  hope  waits  for  tidings.  Affec- 
tion, unwilling  to  believe  the  worst,  frames  one  con- 
jecture and  another  to  account  for  the  delay.  Perhaps 
they  have  been  blown  out  of  their  track  upon  some 
undiscovered  shore,  from  which  they  will  by  and  by 
return,  to  surprise  us  with  their  safety :  perhaps  they 
have  been  captured,  and  are  now  in  confinement. 
How  many  prayers  are  offered  for  the  return  of  that 
ship,  with  its  priceless  treasures  of  life  and  affection  ! 
At  last  anxiety  gradually  settles  down  into  despair. 
Gradually  they  learn  to  speak  of  the  wise  and  public- 
spirited  Gregson,  the  brave  and  soldier-like  Turner, 
the  adventurous  Lamberton,  that  *  right  godly  woman  ' 
the  wife  of  Mr.  Goodyear,  and  the  others,  as  friends 
whose  faces  are  never  more  to  be  seen  among  the 
living.  In  November,  1647,  their  estates  are  settled, 
and  they  are  put  upon  record  as  deceased."  ' 

Besides  its  commerce  with  the  places  which  have 
been  indicated.  New  Haven  made  occasional  ventures 
out  of  the  usual  channels,  as  opportunity  offered. 
Boston  had  considerable  trade  with  the  Canary  Islands, 

'  Of  this  ship,  and  of  the  strange  atmospheric  phenomenon  which  the 
people  of  New  Haven  regarded  as  a  miraculous  tableau  of  her  fate,  some 
fuither  account  may  be  found  in  Appendix  III. 


2IO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

■ 

and  Winthrop  has  put  on  record  an  attempt  which  New 
Haven  made  to  share  in  it.  We  copy  from  his  journal 
under  the  date  of  July  2,  1643  •  — 

"  Here  arrived  one  Mr.  Carman,  master  of  the  ship  called 
(blankX  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  tons.  He  went  from  New 
Haven  in  December  last,  laden  with  clapboards  for  the  Canaries, 
being  earnestly  commended  to  the  Lord's  protection  by  the  church 
there.  At  the  island  of  Palma  he  was  set  upon  by  a  Turkish 
pirate  of  three  hundred  tons,  twenty-six  pieces  of  ordnance,  and 
two  hundred  men.  He  fought  with  her  three  hours,  having  but 
twenty  men  and  but  seven  pieces  of  ordnance  that  he  could  use, 
and  his  muskets  were  unserviceable  with  rust.  The  Turk  lay 
across  his  hawse,  so  as  he  was  forced  to  shoot  through  his  own 
hoodings,  and  by  these  shot  killed  many  Turks.  Then  the  Turk 
lay  by  his  side,  and  boarded  him  with  near  one  hundred  men,  and 
cut  all  his  ropes,  &c. ;  but  his  shot  having  killed  the  captain  of  the 
Turkish  ship,  and  broken  her  tiller,  the  Turk  took  in  his  o^'n 
ensign,  and  fell  off  from  him,  but  in  such  haste  as  he  left  about 
fifty  of  his  men  aboard  him.  Then  the  master  and  some  of  his 
men  came  up,  and  fought  with  those  fifty,  hand  to  hand,  and  slew 
so  many  of  them  as  the  rest  leaped  overboard.  The  master  had 
many  wounds  on  his  head  and  body,  and  divers  of  his  men  were 
wounded,  yet  but  one  slain.  So  with  much  difficulty  he  got  to  the 
island  (being  in  view  thereof),  where  he  was  very  courteously 
entertained,  and  supplied  with  whatever  he  wanted.** 

Besides  merchants  engaged  in  coasting  and  foreign 
trade,  there  were  shopkeepers  in  New  Haven  who  kept 
for  sale  an  assortment  of  such  goods  as  were  required 
by  the  people  of  the  town  and  of  the  other  plantations. 
One  of  these  was  a  widow  named  Stolyon,  living  in  the 
Herefordshire  quarter,  in  a  house  which  Richard  Piatt 
of  Milford  built  and  still  continued  to  own.  A  disagree- 
ment between  her  and  Capt.  Turner  concerning  a  bar- 
gain in  which  he  was  to  buy  cloth  of  her,  and  she  to  buy 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  211 

COWS  of  him,  served  to  put  on  record  specifications  in  a 
charge  of  extortion,  from  which  one  may  glean  some 
knowledge  of  prices,  and  of  the  methods  in  which 
trade  was  carried  on  :  — 

"  I.  The  captain  complained  that  she  sold  some  cloth  to  William 
Bradley,  at  20  shillings  per  yard,  that  cost  her  about  12  shillings,  for 
which  she  received  wheat  at  3  shillings  6  pence  per  bushel,  and 
sold  it  presently  to  the  baker  at  5  shillings  per  bushel,  who  received 
it  of  William  Bradley,  only  she  forbearing  her  money  six  months. 
2.  That  the  cloth  which  Lieutenant  Seeley  bought  of  her  for  20 
shillings  per  yard  last  year,  she  hath  sold  this  year  for  seven 
bushels  of  wheat  a  yard,  to  be  delivered  in  her  chamber,  which  she 
confest.  3.  That  she  would  not  take  wampum  for  commodities  at 
six  a  penny,  though  it  were  the  same  she  had  paid  to  others  at  six, 
but  she  would  have  seven  a  penny.  Thomas  Robinson  testified 
that  his  wife  gave  her  8  pence  in  wampum  at  seven  a  penny, 
though  she  had  but  newly  received  the  same  wampum  of  Mrs. 
Stolyon  at  six.  4.  That  she  sold  primers  at  9  pence  apiece 
which  cost  but  4  pence  here  in  New  England.  5.  That  she  would 
not  take  beaver  which  was  merchantable  with  others,  at  8  shillings 
a  pound,  but  she  said  she  would  have  it  at  7  shillings,  and  well 
dried  in  the  sun  or  in  an  oven.  Lieutenant  Seeley,  the  marshal, 
and  Isaac  Mould  testified  it.     John  Dillingham  by  that  means  lost 

5  shillings  in  a  skin  (that  cost  him  20  shillings  of  Mr.  Evance,  and 
sold  to  her),  viz.,  2  shillings  6  pence  in  the  weight  and  2  shillings 

6  pence  in  the  price.  6.  She  sold  a  piece  of  cloth  to  the  two 
Mecars  at  23  shillings  4  pence  per  yard  in  wampum :  the  cloth 
cost  her  about  12  shillings  per  yard,  and  sold  when  wampum  was 
in  great  request.  7.  That  she  sold  a  yard  of  the  same  cloth  to  a 
man  of  Connecticut  at  22  shillings  per  yard,  to  be  delivered  in 
Indian  corn  at  2  shillings  per  bushel  at  home.  8.  She  sold  Eng- 
lish mohair  at  6  shillings  per  yard,  which  Mr.  Goodyear  and  Mr. 
Atwater  afiirmed  might  be  bought  in  England  for  3  shillings  2 
pence  per  yard  at  the  utmost.  9.  She  sold  thread  after  the  rate 
of  12  shillings  per  pound,  which  cost  not  above  2  shillings  2  pence 
in  Old  England.  10.  That  she  sold  needles  at  one  a  penny  which 
might  be  bought  in  Old  England  at  12  pence  or  18  pence  per  hun- 
dred, as  Mr.  Francis  Newman  aflfirmeth." 


2 1 2  HISTOR  Y  OF  NE IV  HA  I  'EN  COL  ONY, 

These  specifications  will  give  the  reader  some  idea 
not  only  of  prices,  but  of  that  scarcity  of  money  which 
the  records  everywhere  make  apparent.  Dr.  Bacon 
has  taken  notice  of  the  fact  that  when  Gov.  Eaton 
died,  "the  richest  man  in  New  Haven,  with  something 
like  seven  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  plate  in  his  house, 
had  only  about  ten  dollars  in  money."  The  inventories 
of  the  time  seldom  mentioned  gold  or  silver  coin. 
Rates  were  collected  in  wheat,  rye,  pease,  or  maize, 
at  a  price  fixed  by  the  court.  These  grains  and  beaver- 
skins,  being  always  marketable,  were  much  used  in 
trade.  Wampum,  or  Indian  money,  consisted,  says 
Trumbull,  of  "small  beads,  most  curiously  wrought 
out  of  shells,  and  perforated  in  the  centre,  so  that 
they  might  be  strung  on  belts,  in  chains  and  brace- 
lets. These  were  of  several  sorts.  The  Indians  in 
Connecticut,  and  in  New  England  in  general,  made 
black,  blue,  and  white  w^ampum.  Six  of  the  white 
beads  passed  for  a  penny,  and  three  of  the  black  or 
blue  for  the  same."  In  December,  1645,  "i^  ^'^s 
ordered  that  wampum  shall  go  for  current  pay  in  this 
plantation  in  any  payment  under  twenty  shillings,  if 
half  be  black  and  half  be  white ;  and,  in  case  any 
question  shall  arise  about  the  badness  of  any  wam- 
pum, Mr.  Goodyear  shall  judge  if  they  repair  to 
him."  The  scarcity  of  money  naturally  occasioned 
much  use  of  credit ;  the  probate-records  showing  lists 
of  small  debts,  some  of  them  less  than  a  shilling, 
due  to  and  by  the  estate  inventoried.  The  town- 
records  also  bear  witness  to  the  same  fact,  allow- 
ing us  to  see  that  when  A  owed  B,  and  B  owed  C, 
arrangements  were  made  for  A  to  deliver  to  C  some 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  213 

commodity  which  he  required,  and  thus  to  cancel  both 
debts. 

Although  the  leading  planters  of  Quinnipiac  relied 
on  commerce  as  the  chief  means  of  prosperity  to 
themselves  and  to  their  town,  they  all  engaged  from 
the  first  to  some  extent  in  husbandry.  As  the  years 
advanced,  and  they  found  themselves  disappointed  in 
their  town  as  a  seat  of  commerce,  and  unable  to 
remove  to  a  place  more  opportune  to  their  pursuits, 
they  set  a  relatively  greater,  if  not  an  absolutely 
greater,  value  on  husbandry.  For  the  first  year  or 
two,  tillage  was  confined  to  the  home-lots ;  then  it 
was  extended  to  the  fields  in  the  first  division  of. 
upland.  Afterward  farmsteads  were  established  in  the 
second  division ;  some  occupied  by  the  owners  them- 
selves, and  some  by  tenants,  or  by  bailiffs  as  agents 
for  the  proprietors.  At  East  Farms,  a  neighborhood 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Quinnipiac,  were  the  allot- 
ments of  David  Atwater,  Nathanael  Turner,  William 
Potter,  Richard  Mansfield,  Francis  Brewster,  and  Gov. 
Eaton.  The  governor  had  another  farm  at  Stoney 
River,  in  East  Haven,  consisting  of  fifty  acres  of 
meadow,  **with  upland  answering  that  proportion.'*  Mr. 
Brewster  must  also  have  had  land  of  the  second 
division  elsewhere  than  at  East  Farms,  as  that  farm 
contained  only  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  acres  of 
upland,  and  thirty-three  of  meadow.  This  land  of  Mr. 
Brewster  soon  passed  into  the  possession  of  William 
Bradley  ;  and  Gov.  Eaton's  farm,  "by  the  brick-kilns," 
was,  by  his  children,  transferred  to  their  half-brother, 
Thomas  Yale.     The  four  families  of  Atwater,  Turner, 


214  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Potter,  and  Mansfield  have  never  entirely  disappeared 
from  that  neighborhood.  Mr.  Davenport's  farm  was 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Quinnipiac.  A  portion 
of  it  remained  in  his  family  for  six  generations.^ 
Mr.  Gregson  had  a  farm  in  East  Haven,  near  Morris 
Cove,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  Solitary  Cove.  Dodd 
says,  in  his  East  Haven  Register,  that  Gregson  placed 
his  family  there  before  embarking  for  England  in  "  the 
great  ship ; "  but  there  i^  no  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  family  vacated  their  stately  house  in  the  town, 
or  that  Gregson  ever  intended  to  give  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  farm  his  personal  attention.  Mr.  Good- 
year's  farm  was  north  of  the  town,  and  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Pine  Rock. 

The  planters  brought  with  them,  or  procured  from 
Massachusetts,  plants  and  seeds  which  soon  yielded 
the  vegetables  and  fruits  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
enjoy  in  England.  On  the  first  day  of  July,  1640,  a 
naughty  boy  was,  by  order  of  the  court,  "  whipped  for 
running  from  his  master,  and  stealing  fruit  out  of 
Goodman  Ward's  lot  or  garden."  Goodman  Ward 
must  have  given  early  attention  to  the  planting  of  his 
currant-bushes,  to  have  fruit  in  the  third  summer  of  the 
plantation's  history.  The  English  grains,  especially 
wheat,  rye,  and  pease,  were  sown,  and  seem  to  have 
rewarded  the  labor  of  the  husbandman  more  bountifully 
than  in  our  time,  producing  a  supply  for  the  home 

'  A  diagram  of  Mr.  Davenport's  farm,  as  surveyed  by  Mark  Pearcc  in 
1646,  may  be  seen  in  the  Town  Records,  Vol.  III.  p.  296.  "The  general 
total  of  the  lands  belonging  to  this  farm  is  seven  hundred  eighty-three 
acres  and  two  rods."  The  diagram  and  survey  were  recorded  by  Rev. 
John  Davenport  of  Stamford,  grandson  of  Rev.  John  Davenport  of  New 
Haven. 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  21$ 

market,  and  some  surplus  for  export.  From  the 
aborigines  the  English  learned  to  plant  Indian  corn, 
and  to  stimulate  its  growth  with  fish.  Cattle  —  such 
as  swine,  goats,  oxen,  and  horses  —  were  suffered  to 
pasture  on  unenclosed  lands,  ^nd  increased  in  number 
from  year  to  year.  Cows  —  when  the  public  cow- 
pasture  did  not  furnish  sufficient  grass  —  were  driven 
abroad  under  the  care  of  herdsmen,  whose  active  aid 
they  sometimes  needed  in  leaving  the  soft,  treacher- 
ous swamps  where  the  feed  was  most  luxuriant. 

In  the  other  plantations  of  the  jurisdiction,  husbandry 
occupied  the  time  and  attention  of  a  much  larger  part 
of  the  people  than  at  New  Haven.  At  Milford,  a  few 
planters  were  engaged  in  commerce ;  and  some  who 
were  artisans  worked  at  their  trades,  but  the  population 
was  not  sufficiently  numerous  to  support  many  kinds 
of  handicraft.  Guilford  was  even  more  closely  limited 
to  tillage  as  an  occupation.  In  consequence  of  the  de- 
cision of  Thomas  Nash  to  settle  at  New  Haven,  serious 
inconvenience  was  experienced  for  want  of  a  smith,  till, 
in  1652,  Thomas  Smith  came  from  Fairfield,  on  the  in- 
vitation of  the  planters,  who  gave  him  a  considerable 
tract  of  land,  "on  condition  of  serving  the  town  in  the 
trade  of  a  smith,  upon  just  and  moderate  terms,  for 
the  space  of  five  years." 

The  annals  of  husbandry  are  not  eventful,  and  the 
records  afford  but  little  information  upon  that  subject 
which  would  interest  the  general  reader.  There  were 
pounds  and  pound-keepers,  defective  fences,  unruly 
cattle,  fines,  and  awards  for  damages.  We  read  in 
the  town-records  of  New  Haven  :  "  It  is  ordered,  that, 
for  what  blackbirds  John  Brocket  or  others  kill,  he  or 


2l6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLONY, 

they  applying  themselves  thereto  shall  receive  from  the 
treasurer  after  the  rate  of  ten  shillings  a  thousand.** 
At  first  a  considerable  bounty  was  offered  for  heads  of 
foxes  and  wolves  ;  but  in  1645,  "the  court,  being  in- 
formed that  no  man  attends  this  service  as  his  employ- 
ment and  business,  but  improves  opportunity  as  he 
finds  it  occasionally,  ordered  that  the  treasurer  hence- 
forward pay  only  two  pounds  of  powder  and  four  pounds 
of  bullets  or  shot,  or  the  value  thereof,  for  every  wolfs 
head,  and  one  shilling  for  every  old  fox*s  head,  and  six- 
pence for  every  young  one,  to  such  of  this  plantation 
as  within  New  Haven  limits  kill  and  so  bring  them.*' 

The  great  variety  of  useful  arts  practised  in  New 
Haven  obviated,  in  some  degree,  the  inconvenience 
which  the  smaller  plantations  in  the  neighborhood 
must  otherwise  have  experienced.  Few  instances 
occur  in  the  history  of  colonization,  where  within  ten 
years  from  the  commencement  there  was  such  fulness 
of  equipment  for  producing  at  home  the  requirements 
of  civilized  life,  as  at  New  Haven.  The  records  do  not 
enable  us  to  make  a  complete  list  of  its  artisans,  or  of 
the  crafts  at  which  they  wrought,  and  the  writer  has 
never  made  a  systematic  attempt  to  collect  the  names 
of  such  trades  as  are  incidentally  mentioned ;  but  these 
are  some  which  he  has  remembered,  or  with  but  little 
search  has  collected  :  viz.,  sawyers,  carpenters,  ship- 
carpenters,  joiners,  thatchers,  chimney-sweepers,  brick- 
makers,  bricklayers,  plasterers,  tanners,  shoemakers,  sad- 
dlers, weavers,  tailors,  hatters,  blacksmiths,  gunsmiths, 
cutlers,  nailers,  millers,  bakers,  coopers,  and  potters.  Of 
these  handicrafts  some  are  so  nearly  related  that  a  work- 


INDUSTRIAL   PURSUITS,  21/ 

man  easily  passed  from  one  to  another.  Accordingly  we 
find  the  same  person  appearing  as  a  carpenter,  a  ship- 
carpenter,  and  a  joiner  ;  and  his  neighbor  described  at 
one  time  as  a  shoemaker,  and  at  another  as  a  tanner. 
So  that,  with  more  than  the  usual  variety  of  a  new 
settlement,  there  was  something  of  the  versatility  com- 
monly developed  by  emigration. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  now 
obsolete  handicraft  by  which  logs  were  sawn  into  the 
boards  and  planks  necessary  for  the  buildings  and 
palings  of  the  planters.  It  may  seem  to  us  a  slow 
process ;  but,  as  sawmills  had  not  at  that  time  been 
introduced  into  the  mother-country,  it  did  not  seem 
so  to  them.  "  The  first  recorded  attempt  to  establish 
a  sawmill  in  Great  Britain  was  made  near  London,  in 
1663,  by  a  Dutchman,  in  whose  native  country  they 
had  long  been  in  use  ;  but  the  enterprise  was  abandoned 
on  account  of  the  opposition  of  hand-sawyers."  '  A 
tree  having  been  felled  and  cross-cut,  one  of  the  logs 
was  rolled  upon  a  frame  over  a  pit.  Then,  the  master- 
workman  or  "  top-man"  standing  above  to  guide  the 
work,  and  the  "  pit-man"  or  assistant  standing  beneath, 
they  pulled  the  saw  up  and  down,  — briskly  if  at  work 
by  the  piece,  patiently  if  by  the  day.  The  maximum 
price  of  sawing  by  the  hundred,  as  determined  by  the 
General  Court  in  1640,  being  four  and  sixpence  for 
boards,  five  shillings  for  planks,  and  five  and  sixpence 
for  slit  work,  and  the  wages  of  the  two  men  who 
wrought  at  a  saw-pit  amounting,  according  to  the 
same  tariff,  to  four  and  sixpence  for  a  day's  work,  we 
may  conclude  that  at  least  one  hundred  feet  of  lumber 
was  produced  per  day  by  each  pair  of  workmen. 

*  Appleton*s  New  American  Cyclopaedia,  art.  "  Saw." 


2l8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  trade  of  carpentery  had  many  followers  in  a  place 
where  dwellings  were  to  be  erected  within  a  short  period 
for  more  than  a  hundred  families.  William  Andrews 
appears  to  have  stood  at  the  head  of  this  guild.  He 
contracted  in  1639  ^^  build  the  meeting-house,  but  let 
out  some  parts  of  the  work  to  Thomas  Munson  and 
Jarvis  Boykin,  who,  with  the  consent  of  Andrews, 
transferred  some  part  of  their  contract  to  Thomas 
Saul  and  William  Gibbons.  The  two  carpenters  last 
named  did  not  fulfil  their  engagement  "to  make  the 
roof  of  the  tower  and  turret  tight,  to  keep  out  wet," 
and  were  probably  absent,  at  least  temporarily,  when 
the  defect  was  discovered  ;  for  a  question  arose  between 
Andrews  and  the  two  who  had  contracted  with  him, 
which  party  should  make  the  work  good.  "Because 
there  was  a  defect  of  testimony  on  all  sides,  the 
Court  advised  them  to  consult  together,  and  do  it 
amongst  them,  so  as  the  meeting-house  may  be  kept 
dry  without  delay."  The  name  of  Thomas  Saul  does 
not  appear  after  this  transaction,  but  William  Gibbons 
was  some  years  later  a  resident  of  the  town.  The 
meeting-house  needing  further  repairs  a  few  years 
afterward,  a  large  committee  of  carpenters  was  ap- 
pointed to  "consider  whether  the  house  may  stay 
safely  another  year  without  repairs ;  if  not,  then  how 
it  may  be  best  done  for  most  safety  to  the  town,  and 
least  charge ;  also,  whether  the  tower  and  turret  may 
safely  stand,  and  will  not  in  a  short  time  decay  the 
house ;  and,  if  taken  down,  then  what  will  be  the 
charge  of  that,  and  to  make  the  roof  tight  and  comely 
again."  The  committee  consisted  of  William  Andrews,' 
Thomas  Munson,  Jarvis  Boykin,  John  Bassett,  Robert 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  219 

Bassett,  George  Larrymore,  Jonathan  Marsh,  and 
Thomas  Morris.  These  were,  doubtless,  master-work- 
men, having  under  them  journeymen  and  apprentices. 
The  last  named  wrought  as  a  ship-carpenter,  but  his 
appointment  on  this  committee  indicates  that  he  did 
not  confine  himself  to  ship-building. 

Some  of  the  ship-carpenters  in  the  plantation,  besides 
Morris,  were  James  Russell,  William  Russell,  George 
Ward,  Lawrence  Ward,  and  Daniel  Paul.  The  build- 
ing of  a  ship  of  large  size  brought  in  workmen  from 
other  colonies.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  conclu- 
sively whether  the  New  Haven  artisans  were  responsi- 
ble for  the  fatal  crankness  which  Winthrop  attributes 
to  the  vessel  in  which  so  many  of  their  townsmen  lost 
their  lives  in  1646.  Rev.  James  Pierpont,  in  his  letter 
to  Mather,  testifies  that  she  was  built  in  Rhode  Island, 
and  nothing  appears  to  invalidate  his  testimony.  The 
only  occasion  for  doubt  is  found  in  the  improbability 
that  the  feoffees  would  purchase  rather  than  build ;  but 
perhaps  the  business  required  a  ship  sooner  than  one 
could  be  produced  in  a  port  where  nothing  larger  than 
a  shallop  or  a  pinnace  had  ever  been  launched.  If 
Pierpont  was  correct  in  his  apprehension  that  she  came 
from  Rhode  Island,  the  first  large  ship  was  built  at 
New  Haven  immediately  after  the  Rhode  Island  vessel 
sailed,  and  by  the  same  "ship-fellowship  "  to  which  that 
vessel  belonged.  In  August,  1646,  one  of  the  feoffees 
desired  the  justice  of  the  court  about  some  nails  that 
a  workman  had  stolen  from  the  ship.  In  October  "it 
was  propounded  that  help  might  be  afforded  to  launch 
the  ship,  for  Goodman  Paul  informed  the  governor  that 
the  keel  would  rot  if  it  were  not  launched  before  winter. 


220  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Brother  Leeke  had  liberty  to  draw  wine  for  them  that 
work  at  the  ship."  In  the  following  January  there  was 
a  lawsuit  in  which  the  plaintiff,  accounting  for  the 
fact  that  Sergt.  Jeffrey  did  not  go  as  master  of  a 
shallop  on  "  a  voyage  to  Guilford,  Saybrook,  and  back 
to  New  Haven,"  affirmed  that  "  Mr.  Crane,  Mr.  Wake- 
man,  and  Mr.  Atwater,  intrusted  as  feoffees  for  the 
building  of  a  ship  at  New  Haven^  desired  Sergeant  Jef- 
frey might  be  spared  to  go  to  the  Massachusetts  about 
rigging  and  other  occasions  concerning  the  said  ship." 

In  1648  another  vessel  was  built  at  New  Haven,  and 
the  interest  felt  in  it  was  so  general  that  one  can  hardly 
believe  it  was  the  adventure  of  an  individual ;  though 
there  is  no  definite  information  that  it  belonged  to  the 
ship-fellowship  whose  feoffees  had  purchased  a  vessel  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  in  1646  were  building  one  at  New 
Haven. 

The  production  of  leather  and  the  manufacture  of 
shoes  increased  so  rapidly,  that,  within  nine  years  after 
the  commencement  of  the  plantation  at  New  Haven, 
shoes  were  made  for  exportation.  At  first  the  tanners 
spoiled  many  hides  through  ignorance,  as  they  alleged, 
of  the  tan  of  the  country ;  but,  even  after  they  had  pro- 
fessedly acquired  skill  in  the  use  of  the  native  bark, 
poor  leather  was  sometimes  produced.  There  was  a 
lawsuit  in  1647,  ^"^  which  John  Meigs,  a  shoemaker, 
sued  Henry  Grcgorj'^  of  the  same  trade  for  damage 
suffered  from  the  unworkmanlike  manner  in  which 
thirteen  dozen  pairs  of  shoes  had  been  made.  It  ap- 
pears that  Meigs  furnished  the  leather  and  the  thread, 
and  carried  them  to  Gregory  "ready  cut  out,"  agreeing 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  221 

to  pay  him  one  shilling  per  pair  for  making  them.  Abun- 
dant testimony  was  borne  by  persons  who  had  bought 
some  of  the  shoes,  that  they  were  worthless,  coming  to 
pieces  in  a  few  days.  But  some  testifying  that  the 
leather  tore,  and  others  that  the  seams  ripped,  the 
Court  referred  the  matter  to  a  committee  of  shoemakers 
and  tanners,  who  reported  as  follows  :  — 

"  We  apprehend  this :  that  the  leather  is  very  bad,  not  tanned, 
nor  fit  to  be  sold  for  senriceable  leather ;  but  it  wrongs  the  coun- 
try, nor  can  a  man  make  good  work  of  a  great  deal  of  it.  And  we 
find  the  workmanship  bad  also  :  First,  there  is  not  sufficient  stu£E 
put  in  the  thread,  and  instead  of  hemp  it  is  flax,  and  the  stitches 
are  too  long,  and  the  threads  not  drawn  home,  and  there  wants 
wax  on  the  thread,  and  the  awl  is  too  big  for  the  thread.  We 
ordinarily  put  in  seven  threads,  and  here  is  but  five ;  so  that,  ac- 
cording to  our  best  light,  we  lay  the  cause  both  upon  the  work- 
manship and  the  badness  of  the  leather. 

"  Goodman  Gregory,  upon  this  testimony,  seemed  to  be  con- 
vinced that  he  had  not  done  his  part,  but  then  laid  the  fault  on 
Goodman  Meigs,  that  he  was  the  more  slight  in  it  through  his 
encouragement,  who  said  to  him,  'Flap  them  up:  they  are  to  go 
far  enough.'  In  this  statement  he  was  confirmed  by  two  witnesses, 
who  had  heard  Meigs  say  to  him,  *Flap  them  up  together;  they 
are  to  go  far  enough.* " 

Goodman  Meigs  being  called  to  propound  his  dam- 
age, instanced  five  particulars:  ist,  damage  to  his 
name ;  2d,  damage  to  Mr.  Evance,  to  whom  he  had  en- 
gaged himself  to  supply  him  with  these  goods  for 
exportation  to  the  value  of  thirty  pounds  sterling ;  3d, 
damage  in  having  his  wares  turned  back  upon  his 
hands,  Mr.  Evance  having  refused  to  accept  them ;  4th, 
hinderance  in  his  trade,  people  having  on  account  of 
these  shoes  shunned  to  buy  any  wares  of  him ;  Sth, 
money  paid  several  men  for  satisfaction. 


222  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"  The  plaintiff  and  defendant  professing,  upon  the  Court's  de- 
mand, that  they  had  no  more  to  say,  and  the  Court  considering  the 
case  as  it  had  been  presented,  debated,  and  proved,  found  them 
both  faulty.  Goodman  Gregory  had  transgressed  rules  of  right- 
eousness, both  in  reference  to  the  country  and  to  Goodman  Meigs, 
though  his  fault  to  Goodman  Meigs  is  the  more  excusable  because 
of  that  encouragement  Goodman  Meigs  gave  him  to  be  slight  in 
his  workmanship ;  though  he  should  not  have  taken  any  encour- 
agement to  do  evil,  and  should  have  complained  to  some  magis- 
trate, and  not  have  wrought  such  leather  in  such  a  manner  into 
shoes,  by  which  the  country,  or  whosoever  wears  them,  must  be 
deceived.  But  the  greater  fault  and  guilt  lies  up6n  John  Meigs 
for  putting  such  untanned,  homy,  unserviceable  leather  into  shoes, 
and  for  encouraging  Goodman  Gregory  to  slight  workmanship 
upon  a  motive  that  the  shoes  were  to  go  far  enough,  as  if  rules  of 
righteousness  reached  not  other  places  and  countries. 

"The  Court  proceeded  to  sentence,  and  ordered  Goodman  Meigs 
to  pay  ten  pounds  as  a  fine  to  the  jurisdiction,  with  satisfaction  to 
every  particular  person,  as  damage  shall  be  required  and  proved. 
And  further,  the  Court  ordered  that  none  of  the  faulty  shoes  be 
carried  out  of  the  jurisdiction  to  deceive  men,  the  shoes  deserving 
rather  to  be  burnt  than  sold,  if  there  had  been  a  law  to  that  pur- 
pose ;  yet  in  the  jurisdiction  they  may  be  sold,  but  then  only  as 
deceitful  ware,  and  the  buyer  may  know  them  to  be  such.  They  or- 
dered also  Goodman  Gregor\%  for  his  slight,  faulty  workmanship 
and  fellowship  in  the  deceit,  to  pay  five  pounds  as  a  fine  to  the  juris- 
diction, and  to  pay  the  charges  of  the  court,  and  that  he  require 
nothing  of  Goodman  Meigs  for  his  loss  of  time  in  this  w^ork, 
whether  it  were  more  or  less ;  and  the  court  thought  themselves 
called  speedily  and  seriously  to  consider  how  these  deceits  may  be 
tor  time  to  come  prevented  or  duly  punished." 

If  the  contemporary  records  of  the  jurisdiction  were 
extant,  we  should  probably  find  some  legislation 
prompted  by  this  case.  Allusion  to  such  legislation  is 
made  on  the  town-records  a  little  later,  when  sealers 
of  leather  were  appointed,  and  sworn  "  to  discharge  the 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS,  223 

trust  committed  to  them  in  sealing  leather  according 
to  the  Jurisdiction  General  Court's  order."  It  was  at 
the  same  time  ordered  that  calf-skins,  deer-skins,  and 
goat-skins  which  are  fully  tanned  should  be  sealed,  and 
shoemakers  were  allowed  to  use  them  for  upper  leather ; 
but,  as  such  shoes  were  inferior  to  those  made  of  neat's 
leather,  "the  court  ordered  that  every  shoemaker  in 
this  town,  mark  all  those  shoes  he  makes  of  neat's 
leather,  before  he  sell  them,  with  a  N,  —  upon  the  lap 
withinside,  below  the  place  where  they  be  tied."  "It 
was  propounded  to  the  shoemakers,  that,  seeing  hides 
are  now  near  as  cheap  as  ordinarily  they  are  in  Eng- 
land, shoes  might  be  sold  more  reasonable  than  they 
have  been ;  and  the  shoemakers  promised  they  would 
consider  of  it." 

We  have  already  seen  that  biscuit  was  shipped 
to  Virginia  and  the  West  Indies.  But,  according  to 
English  usage,  bread  was  made  in  the  shop  of  the 
baker  for  families  in  the  town.  It  was  of  three  grades  : 
the  white  loaf,  the  wheaten  loaf,  and  the  household 
loaf.  "  Every  person  within  this  jurisdiction,  who  shall 
bake  bread  for  sale,  shall  have  a  distinct  mark  for 
his  bread,  and  keep  the  true  assizes  hereafter  ex- 
pressed and  appointed."  Then  follows  the  assize  fix- 
ing the  weight  of  a  penny  white  loaf,  a  penny  wheaten 
loaf,  and  a  penny  household  loaf  respectively,  when 
the  bushel  of  wheat  is  at  three  shillings,  and  dimin- 
ishing the  weight  of  the  loaf  as  the  price  of  wheat 
increases.  When  a  bushel  of  wheat  cost  three  shil- 
lings, which  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  mini- 
mum price,  the  weight  of  the  penny  white  loaf  was  to  be 


224  HISTORY  OF  A'Eiy  HAVEy  COLOXY. 

eleven  and  a  quarter  ounces  ;  the  weight  of  the  penny 
wheatcn  loaf,  seventeen  and  a  quarter  ounces  ;  and  the 
weight  of  the  penny  household  loaf,  twenty-three 
ounces.  When  wheat  was  at  sLx  shillings  and  sixpence 
per  bushel,  which  is  the  highest  price  named  in  the 
tariff,  the  penny  white  loaf  must  weigh  six  ounces,  the 
penny  wheat  loaf  nine  and  a  half  ounces,  and  the  penny 
household  loaf  twelve  and  a  quarter  ounces. 

The  inspector,  having  been  sworn  to  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  his  office,  "  is  hereby  authorized  to  enter  into 
any  house,  either  with  the  constable  or  marshal,  or 
without,  where  he  understands  that  any  bread  is  baked 
for  sale,  and  to  weigh  such  bread  as  often  as  he  seeth 
cause ;  and,  after  one  notice  or  warning,  to  seize  all 
such  bread  as  he  findeth  defective  in  weight,  or  not 
marked  according  to  this  order.  And  all  such  forfeit- 
ures shall  be  divided,  one  third  to  the  officer  for  his 
care  and  pains,  and  the  rest  to  the  poor  of  the  place." 

Iron-works  were  projected  as  early  as  1665.  John 
Winthrop,  jun.,  interested  in  mining,  and  Stephen  Good- 
year, interested  in  ever)'  enterprise  which  promised  to 
be  advantageous  to  New  Haven,  united  in  setting  up  a 
bloomery  and  forge,  at  the  outlet  of  Saltonstall  Lake. 
The  people  of  New  Haven  favored  the  undertaking  by 
contributing  labor  in  building  a  dam,  and  by  conceding 
the  privilege  of  cutting  on  the  common  land  all  the 
wood  needed  for  making  charcoal.  They  hoped  that  the 
works  would  bring  trade,  and  that  Winthrop  would  fix 
his  residence  in  New  Haven.  The  ore  was  transported 
from  North  Haven,  partly  by  boats  down  the  Quinni- 
piac  and  up  Farm  River,  and  partly  by  carts.     After 


INDUSTRIAL  PURSUITS.  22$ 

two  or  three  years,  Goodyear  having  died,  and  Winthrop 
having  ceased  to  think  of  New  Haven  as  a  place  of 
residence,  the  works  were  leased  to  Capt.  Clark  and 
Mr.  Payne  of  Boston.  Iron  continued  to  ISe  made  for 
some  years,  but  the  institution  did  not  fulfil  the  hopes 
of  its  projectors,  or  of  the  public. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


RELIGION   AND    MORALS. 


TWO  classes  of  writers  differing  widely  in  their  feel- 
ings towards  the  Puritan  emigrants  who  came  to 
New  England  resemble  each  other  in  manifesting  a  sin- 
gular ignorance.  The  planters  of  New  England  never 
were  advocates  of  religious  liberty  ;  and  there  is  equal 
sciolism  in  eulogizing  them  as  such,  and  in  criticising 
them  for  inconsistency  with  their  professions  when  they 
expelled  from  their  territor)'  those  who  publicly  dis- 
sented from  their  religious  opinions  and  from  their  forms 
of  worship.  If  the  Puritans  had  been  in  power  in  Eng- 
land, they  would  have  suppressed  the  ritualism  of  Laud 
as  heartily  as  Laud  punished  non-conformity.  Over- 
powered in  England,  they  came  to  America  to  find 
freedom  to  worship  according  to  their  own  consciences, 
and  not  to  establish  religious  liberty  for  all  men  of 
every  creed.  The  restrictions  which  had  been  placed 
upon  them,  and  the  sufferings  to  which  they  had  been 
subjected  in  their  native  land,  instead  of  leading  them 
to  be  tolerant  of  other  forms  of  Christianity,  ser\'ed 
rather  to  render  them  more  earnest  to  secure  to  them- 
selves, and  to  those  who  should  be  like-minded,  the 
territory  to  which  they  had  emigrated,  and  upon  which 

they  were  to  expend  their  labors  and   their  estates. 
226 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS.  22/ 

They  saw  no  other  way  of  securing  the  end  for  which 
they  had  exiled  themselves,  than  that  of  exclusiveness 
and  intolerance. 

In  accordance  with  such  convictions  and  feelings, 
the  planters  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  not  only  estab- 
lished, in  the  several  plantations,  churches  such  as 
they  approved,  but  took  care  that  no  other  than  "  ap- 
proved churches  "  should  be  gathered,  and  that,  if  they 
should  find  it  impossible  to  prevent  the  formation  of 
other  churches,  the  members  of  them  should  have  no 
political  power.     It  was  ordered  :  — 

"  That  all  the  people  of  God  within  this  jurisdiction,  who  are 
not  in  a  church  way,  being  orthodox  in  judgment,  and  not  scandal- 
ous in  life,  shall  have  full  liberty  to  gather  themselves  into  a  church 
estate,  provided  they  do  it  in  a  Christian  way,  with  due  observation 
of  the  rules  of  Christ,  revealed  in  his  Word ;  provided  also,  that 
this  Court  doth  not,  nor  hereafter  will,  approve  of  any  such  com- 
pany of  persons,  as  shall  join  in  any  pretended  way  of  church- 
fellowship,  unless  they  shall  first,  in  due  season,  acquaint  both  the 
magistrates  and  the  elders  of  the  churches  within  this  colony,  where 
and  when  they  intend  to  join,  and  have  their  approbation  therein. 
Nor  shall  any  person,  being  a  member  of  any  church  which  shall 
be  gathered  without  such  notice  given  and  approbation  had,  or  who 
is  not  a  member  of  some  church  in  New  England  approved  by  the 
magistrates  and  churches  of  this  colony,  be  admitted  to  the  freedom 
of  this  jurisdiction." 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  say,  that,  according  to  the 
theory  and  practice  of  the  New  Haven  Colony,  the 
approved  churches  were  established  by  law ;  but,  since 
the  seven  men  who  were  chosen  to  be  the  foundation 
work  covenanted  together  as  a  church  before  they 
organized  themselves  as  a  civil  court,  it  would  be  more 
accurate  to  say  that  the  civil  authority  was  instituted 


228  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

by  the  church,  than  that  the  church  was  established  by 
the  state.  This  method  of  organization  was  undoubt- 
edly designed  to  secure  "  the  purity  and  peace  of  the 
ordinances  to  themselves  and  their  posterity;"  that  is, 
to  exclude,  as  far  as  they  could,  all  other  forms  of 
Christianity.  Such  was  their  design,  whatever  may  be 
the  verdict  of  the  present  age  respecting  the  breadth 
of  their  scope,  or  the  equilibrium  of  their  justice.  It 
is  easy  to  see  that  such  a  foundation  could  not,  and 
ought  not  to,  endure  through  all  the  changes  of  opinion 
introduced  by  their  posterity  and  by  later  emigrants. 
It  is  not  easy  to  show  that  it  was  cither  unrighteous 
or  impolitic  as  a  temporar}'  arrangement  designed  to 
secure  to  exiles  from  their  native  land  the  peaceable 
enjoyment  of  that  "  purity  of  the  ordinances  "  for  which 
they  had  left  their  homes,  and  in  regard  to  which  they 
were  all  of  one  mind. 

The  "  approved  churches  "  were  of  the  Congregational 
order,  in  distinction  from  Independency  on  the  one  hand 
and  from  diocesan  or  presbyterial  combination  on  the 
other.  Some  of  the  planters  were  High  Church  Sepa- 
ratists, regarding  it  as  wrong  to  be  in  fellowship  with 
the  Church  of  England.  Those  who  were  more  liberal 
had  lost  all  desire  for  Episcopacy,  if  for  no  other  reason 
because  it  was  for  them  impracticable.  To  organize 
congregations,  and  place  them  under  the  government 
of  the  English  hierarchy,  would  have  been  a  surrender 
of  themselves  to  the  yoke  they  had  slipped  from. 
However  they  differed  one  from  another  in  their 
theories  of  the  church,  the  people  of  New  England 
had,  before  the  settlement  of  New  Haven,  with  one  ac- 
cord, practically  renounced  Episcopacy.    The  planters  of 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  229 

Salem  seem  to  have  had  no  plan  for  their  ecclesiastical 
organization  till  the  time  for  action  was  close  at  hand. 
The  adoption  of  Congregationalism  was  a  surprise,  at 
least  to  some  of  them.  A  few  expressed  their  dis- 
sent by  worshipping  apart  from  the  majority,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  forms  prescribed  by  act  of  Parliament. 
After  the  violent  suppression  of  this  schism,  there  was 
no  attempt  among  the  Puritans  of  New  England  to 
organize  congregations  in  connection  with  the  Church 
of  England.  Some  of  them,  when  they  returned  to 
the  mother  country,  showed  by  their  adhesion  to  the 
national  church  that  they  had  not  been  Congrega- 
tionalists  through  conviction  that  Episcopacy  was  un- 
lawful. Others,  on  their  return  home,  conscientiously 
dissented  from  the  established  religion,  and  cast  in  their 
lot  with  the  Separatists,  however  feeble  and  despised. 

Presbyterianism  was  but  little  known  to  most  of 
the  planters  of  New  Haven ;  and  what  Davenport  had 
learned  of  it  by  his  experience  in  Holland  had  led 
him  to  dislike  a  classls  almost  as  much  as  a  bishop. 

Adopting  Congregationalism,  the  people  of  the  New 
Haven  Colony,  like  their  brethren  throughout  New 
England,  intended  by  it  something  as  different  from 
Independency  as  from  Presbyterianism  or  Episcopacy. 
Their  views  and  feelings  may  perhaps  be  illustrated  by 
a  quotation  from  one  of  themselves  better  than  in  any 
other  way.  John  Wakeman,  who  resided  at  New  Haven, 
on  a  lot  at  the  corner  of  Chapel  and  York  Streets  va- 
cated by  the  removal  to  Milford  of  the  widow  Baldwin 
to  whom  it  was  originally  allotted,  was  for  some  years 
the  treasurer  of  the  jurisdiction,  the  representative  of 
the  plantation  in  the  Colonial  Court,  and  a  deacon  of  the 


230  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

church.  Drawing  near  to  the  end  of  life,  he  felt  him- 
self called  to  profess  his  belief,  not  only  in  the  facts 
which  underlie  Christianity,  but  in  that  theory  of  the 
Christian  church  which  prevailed  in  New  England.  In 
his  last  will  and  testament  he  writes,  — 

"  I,  John  Wakeman  of  New  Haven,  being  weak  in  body,  but 
of  sound  understanding  and  memory,  in  expectation  of  my  great 
change,  do  make  this  my  last  will  and  testament  First,  I  com- 
mend my  soul  into  the  hands  of  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  my  Re- 
deemer, trusting  to  be  saved  by  his  merits  and  intercession,  and 
my  body  to  be  buned  at  the  discretion  of  my  executors  and  friends, 
in  hope  of  a  joyful  resurrection;  testifying  my  thankfulness  to 
God  for  the  free  manifestation  of  his  grace  to  me  in  Christ,  and 
for  the  liberty  and  fellowship  vouchsafed  me  with  his  people  in  his 
ordinances  in  a  Congregational  way,  which  I  take  to  be  the  way  of 
Christ,  orderly  walked  in  according  to  his  rules ;  but  I  do  testify 
against  absolute  independency  of  churches,  and  perfection  of  any 
in  light  or  actings,  and  against  compulsion  of  conscience  to  concur 
with  the  church  without  inward  satisfaction  to  conscience,  and  per- 
secuting such  as  dissent  upon  this  ground,  which  I  take  to  be  an 
abuse  of  the  power  given  for  edification  by  Christ,  who  is  (the; 
only  lord  of  the  conscience." 

This  profession  of  Mr.  Wakeman  agrees,  for  sub- 
stance, with  the  doctrine  concerning  Congregational- 
ism taught  by  the  elders  of  the  churches,  and  received 
by  the  people.  Even  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to 
freedom  of  conscience,  and  the  abuse  of  power  in  per- 
secuting, fairly  represents  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
colony,  so  far  as  erroneous  thinking,  apart  from  the 
promulgation  of  error,  is  concerned ;  for,  while  banish- 
ing or  otherwise  maltreating  those  who  dissented  from 
the  majority,  the  law-makers  were  careful  to  declare 
that  the  offenders  were  not  punished  for  wrong  think- 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  23 1 

ing,  but  for  "broaching,  publishing,  and  maintaining" 
their  erroneous  sentiments.  The  law  against  heresy 
reads,  — 

"Although  no  creature  be  lord  or  have  power  over  the  faith  and 
consciences  of  men,  nor  may  constrain  them  to  believe  or  profess 
against  their  consciences,  yet  to  restrain  or  provide  against  such 
as  may  bring  in  dangerous  errors  or  heresies,  tending  to  corrupt 
and  destroy  the  souls  of  men,  it  is  ordered,  That  if  any  Christian 
within  this  jurisdiction  shall  go  about  to  subvert  or  destroy  the 
Christian  faith  or  religion  by  broaching,  publishing,  or  maintaining 
any  dangerous  error  or  heresy,  or  shall  endeavor  to  draw  or  seduce 
others  thereunto,  every  such  person  so  offending,  and  continuing 
obstinate  therein,  after  due  means  of  conviction,  shall  be  fined, 
banished,  or  otherwise  severely  punished,  as  the  court  of  magis- 
trates duly  considering  the  offence,  with  the  aggravating  circum- 
stances and  danger  like  to  ensue,  shall  judge  meet." 

Winthrop's  journal  affords  a  telling  illustration  of 
the  maintenance  of  this  distinction  in  the  neighbor- 
ing colony  of  Massachusetts.  Recording  the  punish- 
ment of  a  Baptist,  who  was  too  poor  to  be  fined,  he 
says,  "  He  was  ordered  to  be  whipped,  not  for  his 
opinion,  but  for  reproaching  the  Lord's  ordinance,  and 
for  his  bold  and  evil  behavior,  both  at  home  and  in  the 
court."  That  the  distinction  was  not  merely  theoretical, 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  many  Baptists  were  un- 
molested, among  them  the  first  two  presidents  of  Har- 
vard College.  Dunster,  the  first  president,  was  an 
avowed  anti-pedobaptist ;  yet  he  held  the  office  for 
fourteen  years,  and  might  have  held  it  longer  had  he 
not,  in  a  moment-  of  excitement,  burst  the  bonds  of 
his  usual  discretion,  and  inveighed  openly,  in  the 
church   at    Cambridge,   against    infant  baptism.      For 


232  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

this  offence  he  was  obliged  to  resign,  but  suffered  no 
further  molestation.  His  successor,  while  approving 
of  infant  baptism,  held  that  immersion  was  the  only 
mode;  and  his  peculiarity  in  this  respect  was  known 
before  his  election.  "Mr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Norton 
were  desired  by  the  overseers  of  the  college  to  tender 
unto  Rev.  Mr.  Charles  Chauncey  the  place  of  presi- 
dent, with  the  stipend  of  one  hundred  pounds  per 
annum,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  country  treasury ;  and 
withal  to  signify  to  him  that  it  is  expected  and  desired 
that  he  forbear  to  disseminate  or  publish  any  tenets 
concerning-  immersion  in  baptism,  and  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  at  evening,  or  to  expose  the  re- 
ceived doctrine  therein." "  Mr.  Chauncey  agreed  to 
this  stipulation,  and  was  never  disturbed. 

There  were  Baptists  at  New  Haven,  but  no  action 
was  taken  against  them  by  the  civil  authority.  Per- 
haps their  immunity  is  sufficiently  accounted  for  when 
we  learn  that  the  wife  of  Gov.  Eaton  was  one  of  them. 
"The  first  discovery  of  her  peremptory  engagement  was 
by  her  departing  from  the  assembly  after  the  morning 
sermon  when  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered,  and 
the  same  afternoon,  after  sermon,  when  baptism  was 
administered,  judging  herself  not  capable  of  the  former, 
because  she  conceited  herself  to  be  not  baptized,  nor 
durst  she  be  present  at  the  latter,  imagining  that  paedo- 
baptism  is  unlawful."  Mr.  Davenport,  finding  that 
others  of  his  flock  were  also  astray,  undertook  to  prove 
in  a  sermon  on  the  next  Lord's  Day  that  "  baptism  is 
come  in  place  of  circumcision,  and  is  to  be  adminis- 
tered unto  infants ; "  which  he  himself  says  was  done 

'  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  X.,  p.  175.    Piercers  History  of  Harvard  College. 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  233 

"  with  a  blessing  from  God  for  the  recovery  of  some 
from  this  error,  and  for  the  establishment  of  others  in 
truth.  Only  Mrs.  Eaton  [received]  no  benefit  by  all, 
but  continued  as  before."  It  is,  however,  more  proba- 
ble that  the  immunity  was  due  to  the  discretion  of  the 
dissenters,  who  did  not  attempt,  so  far  as  appears,  to 
make  proselytes.  That  there  was  some  jocose  talk 
about  banishment,  as  if  such  a  penalty  might  follow 
the  dissemination  of  their  opinions,  appears  in  the  trial 
of  Mrs.  Brewster  for  sundry  vituperative  speeches  con- 
cerning the  church,  its  pastor,  and  the  magistrates.  A 
maid  testified  that  "  she  heard  Mrs.  Brewster,  speaking 
aloud  to  Mrs.  Eaton  concerning  banishment,  say,  they 
could  not  banish  her  but  by  a  general  court,  and,  if  it 
come  to  that,  she  wished  Mrs.  Eaton  to  come  to  her 
and  acquaint  her  with  her  judgment  and  grounds  about 
baptizing,  and  she  would  by  them  seduce  some  other 
women,  and  then  she,  the  said  Mrs.  Brewster,  would 
complain  to  the  court  of  Mrs.  Eaton,  and  the  other 
women  should  complain  of  her,  as  being  thus  seduced, 
and  so  they  would  be  banished  together,  and  she  spoke 
of  going  to  Rhode  Island.  Mrs.  Brewster  confesseth 
the  charge,  but  saith  she  spoke  in  jest  and  laughing."' 

'  The  action  of  the  church. in  reference  to  Mrs.  Eaton  may  be  seen  in 
the  Appendix  to  Bacon's  Historical  Discourses. 

The  pastor,  finding  that  she  had  received  no  benefit  from  his  sermon, 
put  himself  "  to  a  further  task  for  her  good,"  writing  a  treatise  which  was 
read  to  her  in  private.  This  effort,  however,  was  as  fruitless  as  the 
former.  What  course  the  church  might  have  taken  with  her  for  what 
they  regarded  as  the  error  of  her  judgment,  or  for  turning  her  back  on  its 
ordinances,  does  not  appear ;  for,  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  "  divers 
rumors  were  spread  up  and  down  the  town  of  her  scandalous  walking  in 
her  family."  "  Upon  inquiry,  it  appeared  the  reports  w^ere  true,  and  more 
evils  were  discovered  than  we  had  heard  of.    We  now  began  to  see  that 


234  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

While  the  few  Baptists  in  the  colony  were  quiet 
in  their  dissent,  the  Quakers  were  more  troublesome. 
The  first  to  appear  was  Humphrey  Norton,  who,  hav- 
ing been  banished  from  Plymouth,  came  to  Southold, 
whence,  within  six  months  after  his  banishment  from 
Plymouth,  he  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  New  Haven. 
This  was  in  1658.  It  is  an  illustration  of  the  prevalent 
neglect  to  distinguish  between  the  jurisdiction  court 
and  the  court  of  the  principal  plantation,  that  he  was 
indicted  before  the  plantation  court  of  New  Haven. 
Mr.  Leete  of  Guilford  and  Mr.  Fenn  of  Milford  were, 
indeed,  called  in  to  assist ;  and  the  proceedings  were 
afterward  read  to,  and  approved  by,  the  court  of  the 
jurisdiction.     The  charges  against  Norton  were :  — 

^  I.  That  he  hath  grievously  and  in  manifold  wise  traduced, 
slandered,  and  reproached  Mr.  Youngs,  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Southold,  in  his  good  name,  and  the  honor  due  to  him  for  his 
work's  sake,  together  with  his  ministry,  and  all  our  ministers  and 
ordinances. 

^  2,  That  he  hath  endeavored  to  seduce  the  people  from  their 

God  took  us  off  from  treating  with  her  any  further  about  the  error  of  her 
judgment  till  we  might  help  forward  by  the  will  of  God  her  repentance 
for  those  evils  in  life,  believing  that  else  these  evils  would  by  the  just 
judgment  of  God  hinder  from  receiving  light**  Seventeen  specifications 
of  "  scandalous  walking  "  were  presented  to  the  church ;  the  first  charging 
her  with  striking  her  mother-in-law,  the  second  ^ith  an  assault  upon  her 
step-daughter,  and  all  showing  a  violent,  ungovemed  temper.  After 
waiting  nine  months  for  satisfaction,  **  with  much  grief  of  heart  and  many 
tears  the  church  proceeded  to  censure,'*  cutting  her  off  from  its  com- 
munion. 

The  conduct  of  Mrs.  Elaton  was  so  strange  as  to  suggest  the  conjecture 
that  she  was  either  insane,  or  in  that  state  of  ner\'ous  excitement  which 
borders  on  insanity,  and  that  medical  treatment  would  have  been  more 
appropriate  than  church  discipline. 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  235 

due  attendance  upon  the  ministry  and  the  sound  doctrines  of  our 
religion  settled  in  this  colony. 

"  3.  That  he  hath  endeavored  to  spread  sundry  heretical  opin- 
ions, and  that  under  expressions  which  hold  forth  some  degree 
of  blasphemy,  and  to  corrupt  the  minds  of  people  therein. 

"  4,  That  he  hath  endeavored  to  vilify  or  nullify  the  just  author- 
ity of  the  magistracy  and  government  here  setded. 

"  5.  That  in  all  these  miscarriages  he  hath  endeavored  to  dis- 
turb the  peace  of  this  jurisdiction." 

The  sentence  was,  in  the  excess  of  punishment  which 
it  ordered,  worthy  of  the  High  Commission,  or  of  the 
Star-Chamber.  It  discovers  in  the  court  a  hatred  of 
the  prisoner's  opinions,  which  is  but  thinly  covered  by 
the  specification  of  overt  crimes.  Norton  was  fined, 
whipped,  branded,  and  banished. 

At  the  session  of  the  colonial  court  next  following, 
the  proceedings  against  Norton  having  been  approved, 
laws  were  enacted  against  "a  cursed  sect  lately  risen  up 
in  the  world,  which  are  commonly  called  Quakers,'*  im- 
posing fines  on  any  who  should  bring  them  into  the  col- 
ony, or  harbor  them  ;  requiring  Quakers  coming  in  about 
"their  civil,  lawful  occasions,"  upon  their  first  arrival,  to 
appear  before  the  authority  of  the  place,  and  from  them 
have  license  to  pass  about  and  issue  their  lawful  occa- 
sions ;  and  providing  penalties  if  they  attempt  to  seduce 
others,  if  they  revile  or  reproach,  or  any  other  way  make 
disturbance  or  offend.  If  a  Quaker  having  fallen  under 
these  penalties,  and  having  been  sent  out  of  the  juris- 
diction, should  presume  to  return,  penalties  increasing 
in  severity  are  provided  for  the  second,  the  third,  and 
the  fourth  offence.  Penalties  are  also  provided  for 
bringing  into  the  jurisdiction  Quaker  books,  and  for 
circulating  or  concealing  them. 


236  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  cruelty  of  laws  whose  penalties  culminated  in 
"tongues  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron"  must  be  re- 
volting, even  to  those  who  justify  the  fathers  of  the 
New  Haven  Colony  in  intrusting  with  political  power 
only  such  as  were  of  the  "religion  settled  in  this 
colony."  But  such  penalties  were  not  peculiar  to  New 
Haven  or  to  New  England.  In  England,  two  years 
earlier,  a  Quaker  by  the  name  of  James  Naylor  had 
been  bored  through  the  tongue,  and  otherwise  tor- 
mented. So  that,  however  true  it  may  be  that  "  emi- 
gration tends  to  barbarism,"  the  severest  punishment 
with  which  Quakers  were  threatened  by  the  people  of 
New  Haven  was  not  invented  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic. 

Either  these  laws  were  very  effective  in  deterring 
persons  of  the  troublesome  and  hated  sect  from  remain- 
ing within  the  jurisdiction,  or  there  was  little  occasion 
for  the  terror  which  led  to  their  enactment.  Only 
three  instances  are  found,  subsequent  to  the  enact- 
ment of  the  laws  against  Quakers,  in  which  action  is 
taken  against  persons  thus  denominated.  The  first  oc- 
curred a  few  days  after  the  laws  were  enacted,  and 
resulted  in  a  fine  imposed  upon  an  inhabitant  of  Green- 
wich for  the  miscarriages  of  himself  and  his  wife  in 
the  use  of  the  tongue  against  elders  and  magistrates. 
In  the  second,  a  seaman  was  sent  on  board  his  vessel 
lying  in  the  harbor  of  New  Haven ;  and  the  master 
was  required  to  keep  him  on  board  till  he  should 
carry  him  out  of  the  jurisdiction.  The  third  concerned 
a  Quaker  brought  over  from  Southold :  it  was  ordered 
that  the  offender  "  be  whipped,  and  that  he  be  bound 
in. a  bond  of  fifty  pounds  for  his  good  behavior  for  the 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  237 

time  to  come,  to  carry  it  in  a  comely  and  inoffensive 


manner." 


Besides  Baptists  and  Quakers,  there  were  no  sec- 
taries in  the  colony  of  New  Haven  till  after  its  absorp- 
-  ^  ^  tion  into  Connecticut.  Thirteen  years  after  the  union, 
the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  through  their  commis- 
sioners for  trade  and  foreign  plantations,  sent  out  a 
schedule  of  questions  concerning  the  condition  of  Con- 
necticut. The  twenty-sixth  inquiry  was  as  follows: 
viz.,  "What  persuasion  in  religious  matters  is  most 
prevalent  \  and  among  the  varieties,  which  you  are  to 
express,  what  proportion  in  number  and  quality  of 
people  [does]  one  hold  to  the  other  .^"  To  this  ques- 
tion Gov.  Leete  replied  one  year  later,  "Our  people 
in  this  colony  are,  some  of  them,  strict  Congregational 
men,  others  more  large  Congregational  men,  and  some 
moderate  Presbyterians.  The  Congregational  men  of 
both  sorts  are  the  greatest  part  of  the  people  in  the 
colony.  There  are  four  or  five  Seventh-day  men,  and 
about  so  many  more  Quakers."  The  "moderate  Pres- 
byterians "  to  whom  the  governor  alludes  were  a  party 
in  the  church  at  Hartford,  including  Mr.  Stone,  the 
pastor,  who  maintained  that  Congregationalism  was 
"  a  speaking  aristocracy  in  the  face  of  a  silent  democ- 
racy." He,  and'  those  who  agreed  with  him  in  thus 
magnifying  the  authority  of  the  elders,  were  naturally 
called  Presbyterians  by  those  who  magnified  the  rights 
of  the  brotherhood ; »  but  there  was  no  outward  sep- 
aration of  them  from  "Congregational  men,"  either 
"strict "  or  "large  ;  "  and  they  did  not  call  themselves 

*  Gov.  Leete  was  a  member  of  the  church  in  Guilford,  which  from  its 
beginning  would  never  have  a  ruling  elder. 


238  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Presbyterians,  but  claimed  that  theirs  was  genuine  Con- 
gregationalism. The  condition  of  the  united  colony 
fourteen  years  after  the  union  being  such  as  Gov. 
Leete  represents,  we  may  conclude  that  in  the  colony 
of  New  Haven,  previous  to  the  union,  there  was  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  entire  ecclesiastical  uniformity. 

As  another  inquiry  of  the  commissioners  related  to 
religion,  we  may  as  well  record  the  reply  of  Gov.  Leete. 
Though  covering  the  whole  territory  of  Connecticut,  it 
throws  light  on  the  religious  condition  of  that  portion 
of  it  which  a  few  years  before  had  been  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  New  Haven.  The  twenty-seventh  inquiry  was  : 
"  What  course  is  taken  for  the  instructing  of  the  peo- 
ple in  the  Christian  religion  }  How  many  churches  and 
ministers  are  there  within  your  government,  and  how 
many  are  yet  wanting  for  the  accommodation  of  your 
corporation  ? "  The  reply  was,  "(i)  Great  care  is  taken 
for  the  instruction  of  the  people  in  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, by  ministers  catechising  of  them,  and  preach- 
ing to  them  twice  every  sabbath  day,  and  sometimes 
lecture  days ;  and  so  by  masters  of  families  instructing 
or  catechising  their  children  and  ser\'ants,  being  so  re- 
quired to  do  by  law.  (2)  In  our  corporation  are  twenty- 
six  towns,  and  there  are  one  and  twenty  churches  in 
them.  (3)  There  is,  in  every  town  in  our  colony,  a 
settled  minister,  except  it  be  in  two  towns  new  begun ; 
and  they  are  seeking  out  for  ministers  to  settle  amongst 
them." 

It  was  held  in  those  days,  that  there  should  be  in 
every  church,  if  possible,  a  pastor,  a  teacher,  a  ruling 
elder,  and  one  or  more  deacons.  In  the  church  at  New 
Haven  Mr.  Davenport  was  chosen  pastor,  and  Robert 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS.  239 

Newman  and  Matthew  Gilbert  deacons,  soon  after  the 
organization.  In  1644  Rev.  William  Hooke  was  or- 
dained teacher ;  and  about  the  same  time  Robert  New- 
man, one  of  the  deacons,  was  ordained  ruling  elder.* 
"Thus,"  says  Dr.  Bacon,  "the  church  became  com- 
pletely supplied  with  the  officers  which  every  church 
in  that  day  was  supposed  to  need.  It  had  within  itself 
a  complete  presbytery,  —  a  full  body  of  ordained  elders, 
competent  to  maintain  a  regular  succession,  without 
any  dependence  on  the  supposed  ordaining  power  of 
ministers  out  of  the  church,  and  without  any  necessity 
of  resorting  to  the  extraordinary  measure  of  ordination 
by  persons  specially  delegated  for  that  purpose.  The 
three  elders  —  one  of  whom  was  to  give  attention  chief- 
ly to  the  administration  of  the  order  and  government  of 
the  church,  while  the  others  were  to  labor  in  word  and 
doctrine  —  were  all  equally  and  in  the  same  sense 
'elders,'  or  'overseers,*  of  the  flock  of  God.  The  one 
was  a  mere  elder ;  but  the  others  were  elders  called  to 
the  work  of  preaching.  The  distinction  between  pas- 
tor and  teacher  was  theoretical,  rather  than  of  any 
practical  importance.  Both  were  in  the  highest  sense 
ministers  of  the  gospel ;  as  colleagues  they  preached  by 
turns  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  on  all  other  public  occa- 
sions ;  they  had  an  equal  share  in  the  administration 

*  Robert  Newman  returned  to  England,  and  no  one  was  appointed  to 
succeed  him  as  ruling  elder.  Mr.  Hooke  also  returned  to  the  mother 
countr)',  and  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Nicholas  Street  Mr.  Street  was  bom 
in  Taunton,  England,  was  educated  at  Oxford  University,  and  had  been 
teacher  of  the  church  in  Taunton  in  the  colony  of  Plymouth.  He  was  in- 
stalled at  New  Haven,  according  to  the  church  record,  Nov.  26,  or,  as 
Davenport  writes  in  a  letter  to  John  Winthrop,  jun.  (Mass.  Hist  CoIL 
XXXVH.,  507),  Nov.  23,  1659. 


240  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

of  discipline ;  and  if  Mr.  Davenport  was  more  venerated 
than  Mr.  Hooke,  and  had  more  influence  in  the  church 
and  in  the  community  generally,  it  was  more  because 
of  the  acknowledged  personal  superiority  of  the  former 
in  respect  to  age  and  gifts  and  learning,  than  because 
of  any  official  disparity.  The  Cambridge  platform, 
which  was  framed  in  1648,  and  with  which  Mr.  Daven- 
port, in  his  writings  on  church  government,  fully  agrees, 
says,  in  defining  the  difference  between  pastors  and 
teachers,  'The  pastor's  special  work  is  to  attend  to 
exhortation,  and  therein  to  administer  a  word  of  wis- 
dom ;  the  teacher  is  to  attend  to  doctrine,  and  therein 
to  administer  a  word  of  knowledge  ;  and  either  of  them 
to  administer  the  seals  of  that  covenant,  unto  the  dis- 
pensation of  which  they  are  alike  called;  as  also  to 
execute  the  censures,  being  but  a  kind  of  application  of 
the  Word :  the  preaching  of  which,  together  with  the 
application  thereof,  they  are  alike  charged  withal.' 
The  pastor  and  teacher  gave  themselves  wholly  to 
their  ministry  and  their  studies,  and  accordingly  re- 
ceived a  support  from  the  people  :  they  might  properly 
be  called  clergymen.  The  ruling  elder  was  not  neces- 
sarily educated  for  the  ministry :  he  might  without 
impropriety  pursue  some  secular  calling ;  and,  though 
he  fed  the  flock  occasionally  with  '  a  word  of  admoni- 
tion,' the  ministry  was  not  his  profession.  Inasmuch 
as  he  did  not  live  by  the  ministry,  he  was  a  layman." 

But  there  was  perhaps  no  other  church  in  the  colony 
provided  with  a  presbytery  complete  according  to  the 
Cambridge  platform,  than  that  of  New  Haven.  The 
church  at  Guilford  had  for  its  pastor  Rev.  Henry  Whit- 
field, under  whose  guidance  most  of  the  people  had 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS.  24 1 

crossed  the  ocean ;  and  for  its  teacher  Rev.  John  Hig- 
ginson,  a  son-in-law  of  its  pastor.  But,  to  borrow  the 
the  language  of  one  of  its  later  pastors,  **they  never 
had,  and  upon  principle  never  would  admit,  a  ruling 
elder.  Although  in  all  other  things  Mr.  Whitfield  and 
Mr.  Davenport  and  their  churches  exactly  agreed,  yet  in 
this  they  were  quite  different.  I  have  made  diligent  in- 
quiry into  the  subject,  many  years  ago,  with  old  people 
who  were  personally  acquainted  with  the  first  members 
of  the  church.  They  all  invariably  agree,  that  as  Mr. 
Whitfield  was  never  ordained  in  any  sense  at  Guilford, 
but  officiated  as  their  pastor  by  virtue  of  his  ordination 
in  England,  so  neither  he  nor  the  church  would  allow  of 
a  ruling  elder  ;  and  the  ancient  tradition  in  the  church 
here  was,  that  New  Haven,  and  afterward  other  churches 
in  the  colony,  confirmed  their  judgment  and  practice  to 
Mr.  Whitfield's  and  his  church's  judgment."  '  After  the 
return  of  Mr.  Whitfield  to  England,  Mr.  Higginson  was 
both  pastor  and  teacher,  until  1659,  when  he  removed 
to  Salem.  At  Milford  Mr.  Prudden  was  the  only 
preaching  elder,  Rev.  John  Sherman,  a  resident  of  the 
tjown,  having  declined  the  office  of  teacher  to  which 
the  church  had  elected  him ;  but  Zachariah  Whitman, 
as  ruling  elder,  was  associated  with  Mr.  Prudden  in  the 
care  of  the  church.  Mr.  Prudden,  dying  in  1656,  was 
succeeded,  after  an  interim  of  four  years,  by  Rev.  Roger 
Newton,  who,  like  his  predecessor,  was  the  only  preach- 
ing elder.  No  records  of  the  church  at  Southold  of  an 
earlier  date  than  1745  being  extant,  we  cannot  ascer- 
tain whether  it   had  a  ruling  elder;   but   there   is  no 

'  Letter  of  Rev.  Thomas  Ruggles,  author  of  a  History  of  Guilford,  to 
Rev.  Dr.  Stiles  ;  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  X.  91. 


242  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

reason  to  doubt  that  Mr.  Youngs  was  its  only  preaching 
officer.  At  Stamford  Rev.  John  Bishop  was  both  pas- 
tor and  teacher ;  as  was  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson  at  Bran- 
ford,  when,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Jurisdiction 
Court,  a  settlement  had  been  made,  and  a  church  had 
been  gathered,  in  that  place. 

The  preaching  elders  were  maintained  from  the 
treasury  of  tJu  churchy  and  not  of  the  town,  the  treas- 
ury being  supplied  by  contributions  made  every  Lord's 
Day ;  but  these  contributions  were,  if  not  from  the  be- 
ginning, certainly  very  soon  after  the  beginning,  made 
in  accordance  with  a  pledge  which  every  inhabitant 
was  required  to  give,  that  he  would  contribute  a  certain 
amount  yearly  for  the  maintenance  of  the  ministry. 
The  law  respecting  such  pledges  reads  as  follows  :  — 

'*  It  IS  ordered,  that  when  and  so  oft  as  there  shall  be  cause, 
either  through  the  pcrverseness  or  negligence  of  men,  the  particu- 
lar court  in  each  plantation,  or,  where  no  court  is  held,  the  deputies 
last  chosen  for  the  General  Court,  with  the  constable,  or  other  officer 
for  preser\'ing  peace,  and  so  forth,  shall  call  all  the  inhabitants, 
whether  planters  or  sojourners,  before  them,  and  desire  every  one 
particularly  to  set  down  what  proportion  he  is  willing  and  able 
to  allow  yearly,  while  God  continues  his  estate,  toward  the  main- 
tenance of  the  ministr}'  there.  But  if  any  one  or  more,  to  the  dis- 
couragement or  hinderance  of  this  work,  refuse  or  delay,  or  set 
down  an  unmeet  proportion ;  in  any  and  every  such  case,  the  par- 
ticular court,  or  deputies  and  constable  as  aforesaid,  shall  rate  and 
assess  every  such  person,  according  to  his  visible  estate  there,  with 
due  moderation  and  in  equal  proportion  with  his  neighbors.  But 
if  after  that  he  deny  or  delay,  or  tender  unsuitable  payment,  it  shall 
be  recovered  as  other  just  debts.  And  it  is  further  ordered,  Tha« 
if  any  man  remove  from  the  plantation  where  he  lived,  and  leave 
or  suffer  his  land  there,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  lie  unimproved,  neither 
selling  it,  nor  freely  surrendering  it  to  the  plantation,  he  shall  pay 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  243 

one  third  part  of  what  he  paid  before  for  his  movable  estate  and 
lands  also.  And  in  each  plantation  where  ministers'  maintenance 
is  allowed  in  a  free  way  without  rating,  he  shall  pay  one  third  part 
of  what  other  men  of  the  lowest  rank  enjoying  such  accommoda- 
tions, do  pay ;  but  if  any  removing,  settle  near  the  said  plantation, 
and  continue  still  to  improve  his  land,  or  such  part  of  it  as  seems 
good  to  himself,  he  shall  pay  two-thirds  of  what  he  paid  before 
when  he  lived  in  the  plantation,  both  for  movable  estate  and  land, 
or  two-thirds-part  of  what  others  of  like  accommodation  pay." 

There  is,  perhaps,  an  intimation  in  the  law,  that  the 
amount  which  each  inhabitant  should  pay  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  elders  was  determined,  in  some  of  the 
plantations,  by  assessors  and  not  by  himself.  Practi- 
cally, there  could  not  be  much  difference  in  the  two 
methods,  since,  if  the  "  free  way  without  rating  "  was 
practised,  the  order  of  the  court  obliged  non-resident 
proprietors  and  unwilling  residents  to  pay  according  to 
their  taxable  estates. 

The  general  synod  at  Cambridge,  which  in  1648  pre- 
pared, agreed  to,  and  published  the  system  of  ecclesias- 
tical polity  known  as  the  Cambridge  platform,  included 
representatives  of  the  churches  in  the  colony  of  New 
Haven  ;  and  this  platform  fairly  represents  the  Congre- 
gationalism of  these  churches  from  their  organization 
to  the  formation  of  the  Saybrook  platform  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  same  synod  took 
action  on  the  confession  of  faith  published  by  the 
Westminster  Assembly  of  divines,  as  follows  :  — 

"  This  synod,  having  perused  and  considered,  with  much  glad- 
ness of  heart  and  thankfulness  to  God,  the  confession  of  faith 
published  of  late  by  the  reverend  assembly  in  England,  do  judge 
it  to  be  very  holy,  orthodox,  and  judicious  in  all  matters  of  faith ; 


244  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY. 

and  do  therefore  freely  and  fully  consent  thereunto,  for  the  sub- 
stance thereof.  Only  in  those  things  which  have  respect  to 
church  government  and  discipline,  we  refer  ourselves  to  the  plat- 
form of  church  discipline  agreed  upon  by  this  present  assembly.'* 

The  Presbyterian  party  being  at  that  time  in  the  as- 
cendant in  England,  the  synod  adopted  the  Westmin- 
ster Confession,  instead  of  framing  one  for  themselves, 
for  the  sake  of  vindicating  in  the  mother  country  the 
orthodoxy  of  New  England  Congregationalists.  They 
say  in  their  preface :  — 

"We,  who  are  by  nature  Englishmen,  do  desire  to  hold  forth 
the  same  doctrine  of  religion,  especially  in  fundamentals,  which  we 
see  and  know  to  be  held  by  the  churches  of  England."  *'  By  this 
our  professed  consent  and  free  concurrence  with  them  in  all  the 
doctrinals  of  religion,  we  hope  it  may  appear  to  the  world,  that,  as 
we  are  a  remnant  of  the  people  of  the  same  nation  ^-ith  them,  so 
we  are  professors  of  the  same  common  faith,  and  fellow-heirs  of 
the  same  common  salvation." 

If  the  Church  of  England  had  been  at  that  time 
Episcopal,  the  Cambridge  Synod  would  with  equal  will- 
ingness have  adopted  the  doctrinal  part  of  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles.  These  articles  they  heartily  received, 
according  to  the  interpretation  generally  given  to  them 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  in  the  first  part  of  the  reign 
of  James  I.,  and  by  the  Calvinistic  party  in  the  Church 
of  England  subsequently.  The  pastors  and  teachers 
of  the  churches  in  the  New  Haven  colony  retained  the 
Calvinistic  theology  in  which  they  had  been  indoctri- 
nated in  the  universities,  and  believed,  as  did  their 
teachers,  that  it  was  consistent  with  and  embodied  in 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles.  After  the  restoration  of  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  in  the  national  church  of  England, 


.  RELIGION  AND  MORALS.  24S 

the  churches  of  Connecticut  publicly  agreed  with  the 
dissenters  in  the  mother  country,  in  adopting  them  as 
a  standard  of  orthodoxy.  The  Heads  of  Agreement 
which  accompany  the  Saybrook  platform  say,  "  As  to 
what  appertains  to  soundness  of  judgment  in  matters 
of  faith,  we  esteem  it  sufficient  that  a  church  acknowl- 
edge the  Scriptures  to  be  the  word  of  God,  the  perfect 
and  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  own  either  the 
doctrinal  part  of  those  commonly  called  the  articles  of 
the  Church  of  England,  or  the  confession,  or  cate- 
chisms, shorter  or  longer,  compiled  by  the  assembly  at 
Westminster,  or  the  confession  agreed  on  at  the  Savoy, 
to  be  agreeable  to  the  said  rule."  This  declaration, 
though'  made  after  the  first  generation  had  passed 
away,  would  have  been  uttered  by  the  fathers  as  wil- 
lingly as  by  their  children,  if  justified  by  an  appropriate 
occasion. 

In  each  plantation  there  was  a  building  in  which  the 
church  assembled  for  worship.  It  was  built  and  owned 
by  the  proprietors  of  the  plantation,  and  was  used  for 
meetings  of  the  General  Court  as  well  as  of  the  church. 
Having  this  double  design,  it  was  not  called  a  church  or 
a  church-house,  as  an  edifice  used  only  for  church  ser- 
vices would  naturally  be  denominated,  but  a  meeting- 
house. This  twofold  use  of  the  edifice  did  not  offend 
the  religious  sentiment  of  the  people  ;  for  the  court  was 
composed  of  church-members  who  came  together  in  a 
religious  spirit  to  serve  God  in  the  business  of  the 
court  as  truly  as  they  served  him  in  the  ordinances  of 
the  church.  It  was  not  a  temporary  expedient  such  as 
a  people   believing   in  a  more  thorough  separation  of 


24i6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Church  and  State  might  adopt  in  a  new  plantation  till 
they  were  able  to  provide  more  appropriately  for  each ; 
but  it  was  in  its  design  a  permanent  arrangement  be- 
fitting a  theocratic  constitution  of  society. 

The  meeting-houses  in  the  several  plantations  differed 


in  siie,  but  were  similar  in  external  appearance  and 
internal  arrangement.  The  meeting-house  at  Guilford 
was,  however,  of  stone,  as  were  a  few  of  the  principal 
dwellings  in  that  plantation.  That  at  Milford  was  of 
wood,  was  forty  feet  square,  and  had  a  roof  in  shape 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS.  247 

like  a  truncated  pyramid,  surmounted  by  a  "tower." 
That  at  New  Haven  was  of  wood,  was  fifty  feet  square, 
and  had  a  roof  like  that  of  the  Milford  house,  and  a 
"tower  and  turret."  There  were  also  " banisters  and 
rails  on  the  meeting-house  top/'  which  probably  en- 
closed that  higher  and  flatter  portion  of  the  roof  from 
which  the  tower  ascended.  It  was  built  in  accordance 
with  an  order  of  the  General  Court,  passed  Nov.  25, 
1639.  The  estimated  cost  was  ;;^5cx>;  and,  as  the  last 
instalment  of  the  tax  levied  to  raise  that  sum  was  made 
payable  in  the  following  May,  one  may  infer  that  the 
expectation  was  that  it  would  be  finished  within  a  year. 
It  stood  in  the  market-place,  certainly  near  its  centre, 
and  presumably  exactly  upon  it.'  The  frame  being 
insufficient  to  support  the  weight  of  the  tower  and 
turret,  it  became  necessary  to  shore  up  the  posts. 
In  time  it  was  found  that  the  shores  were  impaired 
by  decay,  and  fears  were  expressed  that  the  house 
would  fall.  In  January,  1660,  there  was  a  discussion 
at  a  general  court  concerning  the  meeting-house. 
Some  were  in  favor  of  taking  down  both  the  tower 
and  the  turret.  Some  were  for  removing  the  turret, 
and  allowing  the  tower  to  remain.  Some  thought  that 
both  tower  and  turret  might  be  retained,  if  the  shores 

'  See  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  XL.,  p.  474,  a  curious  essay  on  the  laying 
out  of  towns.  The  author  is  unknown,  and  it  is  without  address  or  date. 
It  seems  to  have  been  written  before  the  settlement  of  New  Haven,  but 
lays  down  the  same  principles  as  ruled  in  laying  out  New  Haven.  The 
meeting-house  is  to  be  "the  centre  of  the  whole  circumference."  The 
houses  are  to  be  orderly  placed  about  it.  Then  there  is  to  be  a  first  divis- 
ion of  lands  extending  from  the  centre  one-half  the  distance  to  the  out- 
side boundary,  to  be  improved  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  settlement, 
before  the  second  division  comes  into  use. 


248  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

were  renewed,  and  the  frame  were  strengthened  with 
braces  within  the  house.  In  conclusion,  it  was  "de- 
termined, that,  besides  the  renewing  of  the  shores, 
both  turret  and  tower  shall  be  taken  down."  Probably 
the  order  to  take  down  the  tower  and  turret  was  not 
executed,  for  a  committee  on  the  meeting-house  re- 
ported, Aug.  II,  1662,  that  "they  thought  it  good  that 
the  upper  turret  be  taken  down.  The  thing  being 
debated,  it  was  put  to  vote,  and  concluded  to  be  done, 
and  left  to  the  townsmen  to  see  to  get  it  done." 

The  internal  arrangement  of  a  meeting-house  is 
shown  in  the  accompanying  plan.  Behind  the  pulpit 
was  the  seat  of  the  teaching  elders ;  immediately  in 
front  of  it  was  the  seat  of  the  ruling  elder ;  and  before 
the  seat  of  the  ruling  elder  was  the  seat  of  the  deacons, 
having  a  shelf  in  front  of  it,  which  ordinarily  hung 
suspended  from  hinges,  so  as  to  present  its  broad  sur- 
face to  the  congregation,  but,  when  needed  for  a  com- 
munion-table, was  elevated  to  a  horizontal  position. 
The  report  of  the  committee  for  seating  people  in 
the  meeting-house  at  New  Haven,  in  1655,  shows  that 
the  deacons  were  expected  to  sit  one  at  each  end  of 
their  official  seat,  and  that  each  of  them  had  his  own 
place,  —  four  men  being  appointed  to  sit  before  Deacon 
Gilbert's  seat,  and  three  women  before  Deacon  Miles*s 
seat.  In  ever)'  such  meeting-house  the  sexes  were 
seated  apart,  the  men  on  one  side,  and  the  women  on  the 
other  side,  of  the  middle  "alley."  The  soldiers'  scats 
were,  however,  an  exception  to  the  rule,  one-half  of 
them  being  on  the  women's  side  of  the  house.  In  the 
meeting-house  at  New  Haven  the  "  forms  "  between  the 
"  alleys  "  were  long  enough  to  accommodate  seven  per- 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS, 


249 


sons,  but  only  two  or  three  were  assigned  to  those  near 
the  pulpit,  the  space  allowed  to  each  person  having 
some  proportion  to  his  dignity.  At  "the  upper  end" 
were  five  cross-seats  and  "  one  little  seat."     The  seat- 


Li 


s 


^ 


O 


MI 


on 


GROUND-PLAN  OP  A  MEETING-HOUSB. 

A.  Teaching  Elders.    B.  Ruling  Elders.    C.  Deacons.    S.  Soldien. 


ing  of  1655  assigns  two  men  to  "the  bench  before  the 
little  seat,"  and,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  house,  two 
women  to  "  the  seat  before  the  little  seat."  In  like 
manner  persons  were  assigned  to  sit  in  front  of  every 


2SO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY. 

front  seat  in  the  house.  The  first  seating  which  is 
recorded  placed  only  proprietors  and  their  wives.  The 
second  was  more  liberal,  including  apparently  all  heads 
of  families,  but,  with  the  exception  of  "  Mr.  Goodyear's 
daughters,"  no  unmarried  women.  This  more  liberal 
policy  in  the  assignment  of  seats  rendered  it  necessary 
to  place  benches  in  the  "alleys,"  before  every  front 
seat.  In  the  meeting-house  at  New  Haven  there  were 
two  pillars,  one  on  that  part  where  the  men  were  seated, 
and  one  on  the  women's  side.  Apparently  they  were 
designed  to  aid  in  supporting  the  weight  of  the  tower 
and  turret.  On  the  accompanying  ground-plan  they 
are  represented  as  placed  in  the  side  "alleys,"  half  way 
from  front  to  rear. 

In  Januar}%  1647,  "i^  was  ordered  that  the  particular 
court  with  the  two  deacons,  taking  in  the  advice  of  the 
ruling  elder,  should  place  people  in  the  meeting-house, 
and  it  was  also  ordered  that  the  governor  may  be  spared 
therein."  *  At  a  general  court  held  the  tenth  of  March, 
this  committee  having  meanwhile  performed  their  duty, 
"  the  names  of  people,  as  they  were  seated  in  the  meet- 
ing-house, were  read  in  court,  and  it  was  ordered  they 
should  be  recorded."  In  1656,  nine  years  later,  another 
record  was  made,  and  in  1662  a  third  record  of  the 
names  of  people  as  they  were  seated  in  the  meeting- 

*  The  governor  may  have  been  spared,  because,  his  wife  being  now 
excommunicate,  no  seat  could  be  assigned  to  her  by  name.  It  will  be 
seen,  however,  that  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  her  in  the  seat  with 
"old  Mrs.  Eaton.*'  Ten  years  later,  the  governor's  mother  being  now 
dead,  the  seat  was  assigned  to  his  wife  under  the  adroit  circumlocution, 
"  The  first  as  it  was,"  but  the  committee's  faculty  of  circimilocution  failed 
when  they  came  to  the  bench  in  front  of  that  seat,  and  they  wrote,  **  Before 
Mrs.  Eaton's  seat" 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  251 

house.  As  a  comparison  of  these  records  may  assist 
the  reader  to  nqjte  the  increase  of  the  congregation 
and  the  change  in  its  personnel,  we  have  transcribed 
them  to  be  printed  in  Appendix  IV.  At  the  town 
meeting  at  which  the  second  list  of  names  was  read, 
**  it  was  agreed  that  (because  there  want  seats  for  some, 
and  that  the  alleys  are  so  filled  with  blocks,  stools, 
and  chairs,  that  it  hinders  a  free  passage)  low  benches 
shall  be  made  at  the  end  of  the  seats  on  both  sides 
of  the  alleys,  for  young  persons  to  sit  on."  But  these 
additional  seats  did  not  suffice,  for  about  twelve  months 
later  the  townsmen,  or,  as  we  now  term  them,  the  select- 
men, were  "desired  to  speak  with  some  workmen  to  see 
if  another  little  gallery  may  not  for  a  small  charge  be 
made  adjoining  that  [which]  is  already."  This  mention 
of  the  gallery  prompts  us  to  suggest,  that,  as  with  few 
exceptions  the  persons  who  had  seats  assigned  to  them 
by  name  were  heads  of  families,  young  men  and  young 
women  sat  in  the  gallery,  as  was  the  general  custom 
in  New  England  in  later  generations.  That  the  interior 
of  the  building  was  cared  for  and  kept  free  from  dust, 
is  evident  from  the  minute,  "  It  is  ordered  that  sister 
Preston  shall  sweep  and  dress  the  meeting-house  every 
week,  and  have  one  shilling  a  week  for  her  pains." 

The  people  of  each  plantation  gathered  together  on. 
the  morning  of  every  Lord's  day  to  a  sanctuary  not 
unlike  that  which  has  been  described.  The  first  drum 
was  beaten  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  tower  of  the 
meeting-house  and  through  the  streets  of  the  town. 
When  the  second  drum  beat,  families  came  forth  from 
their  dwellings,  and  walked  in  orderly  procession  to  the 


252  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY. 

house  of  God,  children  following  their  parents  to  the 
door,  though  not  allowed  to  sit  with  them  in  the  assem- 
bly. The  ministers  in  the  pulpit  wore  gowns  and  bands 
as  they  had  done  in  England,  their  Puritan  scruples 
reaching  not  to  all  the  badges  of  official  distinction 
which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  see  and  to  use,  but 
only  to  the  surplice. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  way  in  which  one  can  more 
accurately  conceive  of  the  ritual  of  worship  in  these 
churches  than  by  reading  what  has  been  written  by  a 
contemporar)%  concerning  worship  in  New  England 
and  especially  in  Boston.     Lechford  '  says  :  — 

"  The  public  worship  is  in  as  fair  a  meeting-house  as  they  can 
provide,  wherein,  in  most  places  they  have  been  at  great  charges. 
Every  Sabbath  or  Lord's  day  they  come  together  at  Boston  by 
ringing  of  a  bell,  about  nine  of  the  clock  or  before.  The  pastor 
begins  with  solemn  prayer,  continuing  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 
The  teacher  then  readcth  and  expoundeth  a  chapter.  Then  a 
psalm  is  sung ;  whichever,  one  of  the  ruling  elders  dictates.  Alter 
that,  the  pastor  preacheth  a  sermon,  and  sometimes  ex  tempore 
exhorts.     Then  the  teacher  concludes  with  prayer  and  a  blessing. 

*•  Once  a  month  is  a  sacrament  of  the  Lords  Supper,  whereof 
notice  is  given  usually  a  fortnight  before,  and  then  all  others  de- 
parting save  the  church,  which  is  a  great  deal  less  in  number  than 
those  that  go  away,  they  receive  the  sacrament,  the  ministers  and 
ruling  elders  sitting  at  the  table,  the  rest  in  their  seats  or  upon 
forms.  All  cannot  see  the  minister  consecrating  unless  they  stand 
up  and  make  a  narrow  shift.  The  one  of  the  teaching  elders  prays 
before,  and  blesseth  and  consecrates  the  bread  and  wine,  according 
to  the  words  of  institution  :  the  other  prays  after  the  receiving  of 
all  the  members :  and  next  communion  they  change  turns ;  he  that 

'  Lechford  was  a  lawyer,  who,  being  disbarred  for  talking  with  a  jury- 
man out  of  court,  returned  to  England. 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,       -  253 

began  at  that  ends  at  this ;  and  the  ministers  deliver  the  bread  in 
a  charger  to  some  of  the  chief,  and  peradventure  give  to  a  few  the 
bread  into  their  hands,  and  they  deliver  the  charger  from  one  to 
another,  till  all  have  eaten ;  in  like  manner  the  cup,  till  all  have 
drunk,  goes  from  one  to  another.  Then  a  psalm  is  sung,  and  with 
a  short  blessing  the  congregation  is  dismissed.  Any  one,  though 
not  of  the  church,  may,  in  Boston,  come  in  and  see  the  sacrament 
administered  if  he  will ;  but  none  of  any  church  in  the  countrj*  may 
receive  the  sacrament  there  without  leave  of  the  congregation,  for 
which  purpose  he  comes  to  one  of  the  ruling  elders,  who  propounds 
his  name  to  the  congregation  before  they  go  to  the  sacrament. 

"  About  two  in  the  afternoon  they  repair  to  the  meeting-house 
again ;  and  tlien  the  pastor  begins  as  before  noon,  and,  a  psalm 
being  sung,  the  teacher  makes  a  sermon.  He  was  wont,  when  I 
came  first,  to  read  and  expound  a  chapter  also  before  his  sermon 
in  the  afternoon.     After  and  before  his  sermon  he  prayeth. 

"After  that  ensues  baptism,  if  there  be  any;  which  is  done  by 
either  pastor  or  teacher,  in  the  deacon's  seat,  the  most  eminent 
place  in  the  church,  next  under  the  elders*  seat.  The  pastor  most 
commonly  makes  a  speech  or  exhortation  to  the  church  and  parents 
concerning  baptism,  and  then  prayeth  before  and  after.  It  is  done 
by  washing  or  sprinkling.  One  of  the  jjarents  being  of  the  church, 
the  child  may  be  baptized,  and  the  baptism  is  into  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  No  sureties  are 
required. 

"  Which  ended,  follows  the  contribution,  one  of  the  deacons  say- 
ing, *  Brethren  of  the  congregation,  now  there  is  time  left  for  con- 
tribution, wherefore,  as  God  hath  prospered  you,  so  freely  offer.* 
Upon  some  extraordinary  occasions,  as  building  or  repairing  of 
churches  or  meeting-houses,  or  other  necessities,  the  ministers 
press  a  liberal  contribution,  with  effectual  exhortations  out  of 
Scripture.  The  magistrates  and  chief  gentlemen  first,  and  then 
the  elders  and  all  the  congregation  of  men,  and  most  of  them  that 
are  not  of  the  church,  all  single  persons,  widows  and  women  in 
absence  of  their  husbandsjf*  come  up  one  after  another  one  way, 

'  Mrs.  Brewster,  in  the  absence  of  her  husband,  who  had  sailed  for 
England  in  Lamberton's  ship,  went  forward  with  her  gift  "  because  her 


254  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  CO  LOW, 

and  bring  their  ofiferings  to  the  deacon  at  his  seat,  and  put  it  into 
a  box  of  wood  for  the  purpose,  if  it  be  money  or  papers :  if  it  be 
any  other  chattel,  they  set  it  or  lay  it  down  before  the  deacons, 
and  so  pass  another  way  to  their  seats  again." 

The  sermons  were  much  longer  than  would  be  en- 
dured at  the  present  day ;  but  were  not  regarded  by 
the  hearers  as  too  long,  such  was  the  interest  which 
the  people  felt  in  the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
so  little  else  was  there  to  occupy  their  intellectual  and 
spiritual  faculties.  Long  sermons,  however,  were  not 
a  peculiarity  of  New  England.  The  churches  in  the 
mother-country  were  commonly  supplied  with  hour- 
glasses, one  hour  being  the  ordinary  measure  of  a  ser- 
mon ;  but  when  an  able  preacher  turned  the  glass  to 
signify  that  he  wished  to  speak  longer,  the  congregation 
would  give  visible,  if  not  audible,  expression  of  their 
approval. 

After  the  contribution,  candidates  were  "propounded" 
for  admission  to  the  church,  or,  having  been  previously 
announced  as  candidates,  were,  on  their  assenting  to  the 
covenant  of  the  church,  formally  received  into  its  com- 
munion. If  there  were  any  matters  of  offence  requir- 
ing censure,  they  were  then  attended  to,  "sometimes 
till  it  be  very  late."  "  If  they  have  time  after  this,  is 
sung  a  psalm,  and  then  the  pastor  concludeth  with  a 
prayer  and  a  blessing." 

In  the  church  at  New  Haven  it  was  the  custom  for 

husband  had  commanded  her,**  but  was  charged  with  saying,  "  It  was  as 
going  to  mass  or  going  up  to  the  high  altar."  She  denied  "  that  ever  she 
spake  of  mass  or  high  altar  in  reference  to  the  contributions,"  but  adroitly 
quoted  the  text,  "  when  thou  bringest  thy  gift  to  the  altar,"  alleging  that 
she  first  heard  it  applied  to  the  contributions  by  her  irreproachable  seat- 
mate,  Mrs.  Lamberton. 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  255 

the  assembly  to  rise  and  stand  while  the  preacher  read 
the  passage  of  Scripture  which  he  had  selected  as  a 
text  for  his  sermon.  But  Hutchinson  says  that  this 
was  a  peculiarity  of  that  church,  and  quotes  a  letter  from 
Hooker  to  Shepard,  referring  to  the  Sunday  when  the 
practice  commenced  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Davenport 
having  preached  a  sermon  in  the  morning  advocating 
such  an  expression  of  reverence  for  the  word  of  God. 

Stated  religious  services  in  addition  to  those  of  the 
Lord's  Day  were  held  on  other  days  of  the  week,  the 
arrangement  of  them  differing  probably  in  the  several 
plantations.  In  New  Haven  the  church  had  a  meeting 
by  themselves  on  Tuesday,  or  "third  day,"  as  their 
scruples  required  them,  at  least  for  a  time,  to  term  the 
third  day  of  the  week.  On  Thursday,  or  "  fifth  day," 
there  was  a  public  lecture  open  to  all.'  Allusion  is  also 
made  in  the  records  to  neighborhood-meetings,  not  only 
during  the  year  preceding  the  formation  of  a  church 
and  a  government,  but  so  late  as  May,  1661. 

"  A  plantation  whose  design  is  religion  "  ought  to  be 
distinguished  for  morality.  Such  being  the  design  of 
all  the  plantations  combined  in  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  we  naturally  expect  to  find  it  standing  higher 
than  midway  in  a  list  of  Christian  communities  arranged 
according  to  their  respective  degrees  of  ethical  purity. 
All  the  proprietors  were,  or  desired  to  become,  church- 

'  I  am  not  sure  that  either  the  church-meeting  or  the  lecture-service 
was  held  cvcr>'  week.  The  lecture  probably  occurred  regularly,  whatever 
the  interval ;  the  church-meeting  may  have  lieen  appointed  by  the  elders 
whenever  there  Was  occasion.  I  think,  however,  that  church-meetings 
were  always  on  third  day,  and  lectures  always  on  fifth  day. 


256  HISTORY  OF  XEW  HAVEX  COLOXY, 

members,  and  all  had  evinced  the  sincerity  of  their  re- 
ligious professions  by  coming  into  the  wilderness  for  the 
sake  of  their  religion.  Such  men  were  personally  moral, 
and,  so  far  as  they  could  control  their  children,  their 
ser\'ants,  and  the  strangers  who  sojourned  among  them, 
they  preser\'ed  their  community  free  from  vice.  It  is 
true  that  the  records  supply  evidence  that  the  moral  law 
was  sometimes  transgressed.  Indeed,  if  one  should 
judge  solely  from  the  number  of  cases  brought  to  trial, 
he  might  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  a  low 
state  of  morals  in  the  colony.  But  a  community  gov- 
erned by  Puritans  differed  from  other  communities, 
both  in  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  moral  code  en- 
forced by  the  civil  law,  and  in  the  strictness  with  which 
laws  enacted  in  the  interest  of  morality  were  enforced. 
Probably  more  cases  were  brought  before  the  court,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  crimes  committed,  than  in 
any  community  of  the  present  day.  In  our  time  the 
civil  law  aims  to  protect  society  from  the  destructive 
power  of  immorality,  and  this  is  the  limit  of  its  endeavor 
in  behalf  of  morality.  If  there  be  any  laws  on  the 
statute-book  designed  to  protect  an  individual  from  him- 
self, or  to  enforce  the  duties  which  man  owes  to  God, 
such  laws  are  ancient,  and,  for  want  of  enforcement, 
are  practically  obsolete. 

The  whole  duty  of  a  man  comprises  his  duties  to 
himself,  his  duties  to  his  fellow-beings,  and  his  duties 
to  God.  Puritan  law  enforced  the  obligations  of  the 
first  and  third,  as  well  as  of  the  second  division. 
Drunkenness  and  unchastity  were  trespasses  which  the 
offender  committed  against  himself,  —  trespasses  from 
which  the  innocent  were  to  be  deterred  by  penalties 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  2$? 

threatened,  and,  whenever  there  was  transgression,  by 
penalties  inflicted.  Blasphemy  was  an  outrage  upon 
the  being  spoken  against,  and  wilful  absence  from  pub- 
lic worship  was  to  rob  God  of  the  outward  honor  right- 
fully  belonging  to  him :  there  were  therefore  laws  to 
protect  the  rights  of  God  by  punishing  such  impiety. 

The  field  in  which  ethical  purity  was  enforced  by 
law,  being  considerably  wider  than  in  modern  times,  the 
moral  sentiment  of  society  being  high-toned,  and  magis- 
trates being  conscientiously  diligent  in  maintaining 
law,  there  were  more  criminal  prosecutions  than  would 
occur  under  modern  laws  and  modern  administration 
in  a  community  equally  virtuous  and  of  equal  popula- 
tion. Allowing  for  the  breadth  of  the  Puritan  code  of 
morals,  and  the  conscientiousness  with  which  law  was 
enforced,  one  must  conclude  that  the  people  of  the 
New  Haven  colony  were  more  moral  than  the  people 
inhabiting  the  same  territory  have  been  during  any 
equal  period  in  modern  times.  Antecedent  to  the 
union  with  Connecticut,  there  was  no  trial  of  an 
English  person  for  murder.  There  is  incidental  evi- 
dence that  there  was  one  trial  for  adultery,  though 
the  record  of  it  is  lost.  There  were  executions  for 
crimes  of  unnatural  lust,  but  the  imperfection  of  the 
records  renders  it  impossible  to  determine  how  many. 
Trials  for  fornication,  drunkenness,  and  theft  were  not 
as  numerous  in  proportion  to  the  population  as  on  the 
same  territory  in  our  own  time. 

Generally,  offenders  were  either  servants  or  artisans 
temporarily  resident.  But  in  a  comparatively  few  cases 
the  children  of  proprietors  so  far  deviated  from  the 
strictly  moral  life  required  by  Puritan  law,  as  to  be  sum- 


258  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

moncd  before  the  magistrates.  When  this  happened, 
it  usually  appeared  that  they  had  been  misled  by  sen^- 
ants,  bond  or  hired.  One  such  case  ilhistrates  the  firm- 
ness and  impartiality  with  which  law  was  administered. 
The  daughter  of  a  magistrate  was,  by  order  of  the  court 
of  magistrates,  whipped  for  "  consenting  to  go  in  the 
night  to  the  farms  with  Will.  Harding  to  a  venison 
feast ;  for  stealing  things  from  her  parents ;  and  yielding 
to  filthy  dalliance  with  the  said  Harding."  Neither  her 
father  who  was  a  member  of  the  court,  nor  her  father's  \' 
"  cousin  "  who  presided,  however  they  may  have  shrunk 
and  faltered,  refused  to  administer  the  same  measure  as 
they  would  have  administered  to  the  humblest  appren- 
tice. 

Passing  out  of  the  zone  in  which  morality  was  pro- 
tected by  civil  law,  into  the  region  where  conscience 
and  public  sentiment  ruled,  we  find  the  colonists  supe- 
rior rather  than  inferior  to  their  descendants  and  succes- 
sors. In  the  sobriety  which  governs  animal  appetites  ; 
in  the  observance  of  the  rules  of  righteousness  between 
man  and  man  ;  in  the  carefulness  with  which  honor  was 
given  to  those  to  whom  honor  was  due,  and.  especially 
to  the  Supreme  Ruler,  —  they  excelled. 

Haxnng  said  so  much  in  commendation^,  we  must  in 
truthfulness  testify,  that,  like  the  saints  whose  sins  are 
recorded  on  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ,  they  were  human 
and  therefore  imperfect.  Even  among  church-members 
there  were  cases  of  gross  immorality.  In  a  single 
church  there  was  one  case  of  lying,  one  of  fraud,  one 
of  drunkenness,  and  one  of  unnatural  lust.  These  ex- 
ceptional outbreaks  of  wickedness  are  conspicuous  by 
reason  of  the  general  sobriety,  righteousness,  and  god- 
liness of  the  community  in  which  they  occurred. 


•^»i 


RELIGION  AND  MORALS,  259 

If  there  was  any  sin  to  which  Puritans  were  espe- 
cially liable,  it  was  avarice.  Watchful  against  carnality 
and  ungodliness,  they  were  less  suspicious  of  that  lust 
of  acquiring,  which  under  the  guise  of  such  virtues  as 
industry,  frugality,  and  domestic  affection,  sometimes 
held  them  in  a  bondage  of  which  they  were  little  aware. 
Hence  there  were  frequent  appeals  to  the  court  for  jus- 
tice between  man  and  man  in  regard  to  contracts,  and  in 
one  instance  a  complaint  from  the  deacons  of  the  church 
in  the  principal  plantation  that  "  the  wampum  that  is 
put  into  the  church-treasury  is  generally  so  bad  that 
the  elders  to  whom  they  pay  it  cannot  pay  it  away." 
The  court,  appointing  a  committee  to  inquire  further 
concerning  the  matter,  found  that  "  the  contributions 
for  the  church-treasury  are  by  degrees  so  much  abated 
that  they  afford  not  any  considerable  maintenance  to 
the  teaching  officers,  and  that  much  of  the  wampum 
brought  in  is  such,  and  so  faulty,  that  the  officers  can 
hardly,  or  not  at  all,  pass  it  away  in  any  of  their  occa- 
sions." Those  who  abated  their  contributions  too  much, 
or  cast  into  the  treasury  of  the  church  worthless  money, 
were  certainly  wrong ;  but  perhaps  those  who  in  our 
day  are  accustomed  to  receive  and  count  the  contribu- 
tions of  churches,  could  testify  that  such  manifestations 
of  avarice  are  not  peculiar  to  ancient  times. 

The  outward  honor  shown  to  those  who  were  worthy 
of  honor  was  in  the  seventeenth  century  rendered  as 
being  of  moral  obligation.  Good  morals  included  good 
manners,  and  good  manners  were  so  far  forth  good 
morals.  The  Puritan  gave  to  the  fifth  commandment  so 
broad  a  scope  that  it  required  outward  expressions  of 
reverence  for  all  superiors  in  age  or  station.     It  would 


260  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEX  COLONY, 

be  impossible  now  to  re-establish  the  manners  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  or  to  convince  any  considerable 
part  of  society  that  the  young  owe  to  their  superiors  in 
age  any  such  degree  of  deference  as  was  then  acknowl- 
edged to  be  due.  But  even  to  one  who  believes  that  out- 
ward signs  of  reverence  were  then  excessive,  there  may 
perhaps  be  more  of  fitness  and  beauty  in  the  manners 
of  the  olden  time,  notwithstanding  such  excess,  than  in 
the  opposite  extreme  sometimes  exhibited  in  modem 
society.  Certainly,  as  reverence  for  superiors  was  then 
universally  held  to  be  of  moral  obligation,  the  people  of 
New  Haven  colony  are  to  be  credited  for  the  general 
rendition  of  honor  to  whom  honor  is  due. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


LEARNINa 


PROTESTANT  Christianity  places  so  much  empha- 
sis on  individual  accountability  to  God  that  con- 
sistency requires  a  Protestant  community  to  provide 
that  every  person  shall  be  able  to  read,  in  order  that 
he  may  read  the  Scriptures.  The  Puritan  fathers  of 
New  England  established  schools  as  early  as,  or  earlier 
than,  they  organized  churches,  and  with  direct  reference 
to  religious  instruction  as  the  ultimate  end.  Under  the 
caption  "Children's  Education,"  the  New  Haven  law 
reads  as  follows :  — 

"  Whereas  too  many  parents  and  masters,  either  through  an 
over  tender  respect  to  their  own  occasions  and  business,  or  not 
duly  considering  the  good  of  their  children  and  apprentices,  have 
too  much  neglected  duty  in  their  education  while  they  are  young 
and  capable  of  learning,  It  is  Ordered,  That  the  deputies  for  the 
particular  court  in  each  plantation  within  this  jurisdiction  for  the 
time  being,  or  where  there  are  no  such  deputies,  the  constable  or 
other  officer  or  officers  in  public  trust,  shall,  from  time  to  time,  have 
a  vigilant  eye  over  their  brethren  and  neighbors  within  the  limits 
of  the  said  plantation ;  that  all  parents  and  masters  do  duly  en- 
deavor, either  by  their  own  ability  and  labor,  or  by  improving  such 
school-master  or  other  help  and  means  as  the  plantation  doth  afford 
or  the  family  may  conveniently  provide,  that  all  their  children  and 
apprentices,  as  they  grow  capable,  may,  through  God's  blessing, 

attain  at  least  so  much  as  to  be  able  duly  to  read  the  Scriptures 

261 


262  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY, 

and  other  good  and  profitable  printed  books  in  the  English  tongue, 
being  their  native  language ;  and,  in  some  competent  measure,  to 
understand  the  main  grounds  and  principles  of  Christian  religion 
necessary  to  salvation." 

The  Statute  then  proceeds  to  provide  for  its  enforce- 
ment, imposing  fine  after  fine,  and  finally  authorizing 
the  court  of  magistrates  if  " such  children  or  serxants 
may  be  in  danger  to  grow  barbarous,  rude,  and  stub- 
born," to  "take  such  children  or  apprentices  from  such 
parents  or  masters,  and  place  them  for  years,  boys  till 
they  come  to  the  age  of  one  and  twenty,  and  girls  till 
they  come  to  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  with  such 
others  who  shall  better  educate  and  govern  them,  both 
for  public  conveniency  and  for  the  particular  good  of 
the  said  children  or  apprentices.*' 

We  learn  from  the  statute  that  the  end  for  which 
schools  were  instituted  was  that  children  might  not 
grow  "barbarous,  rude,  and  stubborn."  From  the  his- 
tory of  the  schools  we  shall  further  find  that  the  plant- 
ers had  in  view  not  only  to  secure  the  colony  from  the 
existence  of  a  dangerous  class,  but  to  qualify  some  of 
their  youth  to  be  leaders  of  the  people  in  the  following 
generation. 

The  first  planters  of  the  earliest  plantation  in  the 
colony  brought  with  them  a  school-master.  A  few 
months  after  the  arrival  of  the  company  at  Ouinnipiac, 
and  apparently  as  soon  as  a  room  for  the  school  could 
be  provided,  he  commenced  to  teach.  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  who  was  his  pupil  in  the  summer  of  1639,  says, 
"  I  was  sent  to  school  to  Mr.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  who  at 
that  time  taught  school  in  his  own  house ;  and  under 
him,  in  a  year  or  two  I  profited  so  much,  through  the 


LEARNING,  263 

blessing  of  God,  that  I  began  to  make  Latin,  and  to  get 
on  apace.'*  The  revision  of  the  town  records  sanc- 
tioned by  the  General  Court,  after  the  unfaithfulness 
of  Secretary  Fugill  had  been  discovered,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing minute  concerning  Mr.  Cheever*s  school :  — 

"  For  the  better  training  up  of  youth  in  this  town,  that  through 
God's  blessing  they  may  be  fitted  for  public  service  hereafter, 
either  in  church  or  commonweal,  it  is  ordered  that  a  free  school  ' 
be  set  up,  and  the  magistrates  with  the  teaching  elders  are  en- 
treated to  consider  what  rules  and  orders  are  meet  to  be  observed, 
and  what  allowance  may  be  convenient  for  the  school-master's  care 
and  pains,  which  shall  be  paid  out  of  the  town's  stock.  According 
to  which  order  £20  a  year  was  paid  to  Mr.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  the 
present  school-master,  for  two  or  three  years  at  first ;  but  tliat  not 
proving  a  competent  maintenance,  in  August,  1644,  it  was  enlarged 
to  £10  a  year,  and  so  continueth." 

After  Mr.  Cheever*s  difficulty  with  the  church  it  was 
uncomfortable  for  him  to  reside  in  New  Haven,  and  he 
soon  removed  to  Ipswich.  In  October,  1650,  "it  was 
propounded  that  a  school-master  be  provided  for  the 
town,"  and  the  matter  was  referred  to  a  committee ; 
but  some  time  elapsed  before  a  school-master  was  found 
whom  the  town  was  willing  to  reward  with  so  large  a 
salary  as  they  had  paid  to  Mr.  Cheever.  Mr.  Jeanes, 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  town,  was  willing  to  teach, 
and,  in  March,  1651,  "it  was  propounded  to  know 
whether  the  town  would  allow  any  salary  to  Mr.  Jeanes 
for  teaching  school.^     Much   debate  was  about  it,  but 

'  William  Jeanes,  whose  house  was  at  the  corner  of  Chapel  and  Church 
Streets.  I  have  seen  it  stated  that  Rev.  Thomas  Tames,  who  lived  at  the 
corner  of  Chapel  and  York  Streets,  taught  school  in  New  Haven;  but 
after  diligent  search  I  conclude  that  this  is  a  mistake  occasioned  by  the 
similarity  of  his  name  to  that  of  Jeanes. 


264  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

nothing  was  ordered  in  it  at  present ;  only  it  was  pro- 
pounded to  him,  that  if  the  town  would  allow  him  ^10 
a  year,  whether  he  would  not  go  on  to  teach  and  take 
the  rest  of  the  parents  of  the  children  by  the  quarter ; 
but  he  returned  no  answer."  On  further  reflection  Mr. 
Jeanes  concluded  to  accept  the  town's  offer,  so  that  in 
May  the  town  "ordered  that  he  should  have  £,\o  for 
this  year."  In  October  "  Mr.  Jeanes  informed  the  town 
that  he  is  offered  a  considerable  maintenance  to  go  to 
Wethersfield  to  teach  school,  yet  if  the  town  will  settle 
that  ^10  a  year  upon  him  formerly  ordered,  he  is 
willing  to  stay  here  in  the  work  he  is.  Whereupon  it 
was  voted  that  for  three  years  he  have  ^10  a  year 
as  formerly  ordered,  and  upon  the  same  terms  as 
before."  For  some  reason  Mr.  Jeanes  did  not  continue 
to  teach  for  so  long  a  period  as  the  town  had  engaged 
itself  to  him  ;  for,  in  October,  165 1  :  — 

"  The  secretary  was  desired  to  speak  with  Mr.  Goodyear  to  use 
some  means  to  bring  the  school-master  hither,  who,  they  hear,  is 
coming,  but  wants  transportation;  and,  about  a  fortnight  later, 
"  the  governor  acquainted  the  court  that  now  the  school-master  is 
come,  and  some  course  must  be  taken  to  provide  for  his  lodging 
and  diet :  and  to  repair  the  school-house ;  and  consider  what  the 
town  will  allow  him  a  vear ;  and  what  his  work  shall  be ;  therefore 
it  is  necessary  a  committee  should  be  chosen  to  treat  with  him. 
The  court  considered  of  the  motion,  and  chose  the  ruling  elder, 
the  four  deputies,  and  the  treasurer,  as  a  committee  to  treat  with 
him  and  provide  for  him;  and  declared  that  they  are  willing  to 
allow  him  ;£3o  a  year  out  of  the  treasur}-,  or  any  greater  sum  as 
they  can  agree,  not  exceeding  £\o.  and  that  his  work  should  be  to 
perfect  male  children  in  the  English  after  they  can  read  in  their 
Testament  or  Bible,  and  to  learn  them  to  write,  and  to  bring  them 
on  to  Latin  as  they  are  capable,  and  desire  to  proceed  therein." 


LEARNING,  26$ 

Three  days  later  — 

"  The  committee  appointed  at  the  last  court  to  treat  and  agree 
with  the  school-master,  acquainted  the  court  with  what  they  had 
done ;  viz.,  that  he  propounded  to  have  ;£2o  a  year,  and  the  town 
to  pay  for  his  chamber  and  diet  (which  they  have  agreed  with  Mr. 
Atwater  for,  for  five  shillings  per  week) ;  that  the  town  pay  toward 
his  charges  in  coming  hither  thirty  shillings ;  that  he  have  liberty 
once  a  year  to  go  to  see  his  friends,  which  we  propounded  to  be 
in  harvest  time ;  that  his  pay  be  good,  and  €ome  of  it  such  as 
wherewith  he  may  buy  books  and  defray  charges  in  his  travel; 
that  if  he  be  called  away  (not  to  the  same  work,  but  to  some  other 
employment  which  may  be  for  the  honor  of  Christ)  he  may  have 
liberty.  And  for  this  he  will  teach  the  children  of  this  town 
(having  the  benefit  of  strangers  to  himself)  after  they  are  entered 
and  can  read  in  the  Testament ;  to  perfect  them  in  English ;  and 
teach  them  their  Latin  tongue  as  they  are  capable ;  and  to  write. 
After  consideration  the  town  voted  to  accept  the  terms  propounded." 

The  school-master  thus  provided  was  Xphfi  Hanford,    tU«/^>»s  ^ 
afterward  settled  in  the  ministry  at  Norwalk.     When 
he  had  taught  about  four  months  :  — 

"The  governor  acquainted  the  court  that  he  hears  the  school- 
master is  somewhat  discouraged,  because  he  hath  so  many  English 
scholars  which  he  must  learn  to  spell,  which  was  never  the  town's 
mind,  as  appeared  in  the  order  which  was  now  read.  And  it  was 
now  ordered  that  the  school-master  shall  send  back  such  scholars 
as  he  sees  do  not  answer  the  first  agreement  with  him,  and  the 
parents  of  such  children  were  desired  not  to  send  them." 

Seven  months  after  Mr.  Hanford  had  commenced  his 
school :  — 

"The  governor  informed  the  court  that  one  of  Norwalk  had 
been  with  him  to  desire  liberty  for  Mr.  Hanford's  remove  to  be 
helpful  to  that  plantation  in  the  work  of  the  ministr}':  also  Mr. 
Hanford  himself,  who  saith  he  finds  his  body  unable,  and  that  it 
will  not  stand  with  his  health  to  go  on  in  bis  work  of  teaching 


266  HISTORY  OF  KEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

school,  and  therefore  desires  liberty  to  take  his  opportunity ;  which 
liberty  he  did  reserve  when  he  agreed  with  the  town ;  the  record 
of  which  agreement  being  read,  it  so  appeared.  Therefore,  if  his 
mind  was  so  set,  they  could  not  hinder  him ;  but  a  convenient  time 
of  warning  was  desired,  which  he  granted,  if  it  was  a  month  or 
two." 

On  the  same  day  when  the  aforesaid  action  was 
taken,  releasing  Mr.  Hanford,  "  brother  Davis's  son  was 
propounded  to  supply  the  school-master's  place,  and  the 
magistrates,  elders,  and  deacons,  with  the  deputies  for 
the  court,  were  chosen  as  a  committee  to  treat  with  him 
about  it."  It  is  probable,  however,  that  Mr.  Davis  was 
not  employed ;  for  the  governor  informed  the  court, 
Nov.  8,  1652:  — 

''  That  the  cause  of  calling  this  meeting  is  about  a  school-master, 
to  let  them  know  what  he  hath  done  in  it.  He  hath  written  a  let- 
ter to  one  Mr.  Bowers,  who  is  school-master  at  Plymouth,  and  de- 
sires to  come  into  these  parts  to  live,  and  another  letter  about  one 
Mr.  Rowlandson,  a  scholar,  who,  he  hears,  will  tike  that  employ- 
ment upon  him.  How  they  will  succeed,  he  knows  not ;  but  now 
Mr.  Jeanes  is  come  to  the  town,  and  is  willing  to  come  hither  again 
if  he  may  have  encouragement.  What  course  had  been  taken  to 
get  one  he  was  acquainted  with,  and  that,  if  either  of  them  come, 
he  must  be  entertained  ;  but  he  said,  if  another  come,  he  should  be 
willing  to  teach  boys  and  girls  to  read  and  write,  if  the  town 
thought  fit;  and  Mr.  Jeanes  being  now  present,  confirmed  it.  The 
town  generally  was  willing  to  encourage  Mr.  Jeanes's  coming,  and 
would  allow  him  at  least  ten  pounds  a  year  out  of  the  treasur}',  and 
the  rest  he  might  take  of  the  parents  of  the  children  he  teacheth, 
by  the  quarter,  as  he  did  before,  to  make  it  up  a  comfortable  main- 
tenance.  And  many  of  the  town  thought  there  would  be  need  of 
two  school-masters,  for  if  a  Latin  school-master  come,  it  is  feared 
he  will  be  discouraged  if  many  English  scholars  come  to  him. 
Mr.  Jeanes,  seeing  the  town's  willingness  for  his  coming  again, 
acknowledged  their  love,  and  desired  them  to  proceed  no  further 


LEARNING,  26/ 

at  this  time ;  for  he  was  not  sure  he  shall  get  free  where  he  is,  and 
if  he  do,  he  doubts  it  will  not  be  before  winter.  Therefore  no 
more  was  done  in  it  at  present." 

About  seven  months  later  (June  21,  1653) :  — 

"The  governor  acquainted  the  town  that  Mr.  Bowers,  whom 
they  sent  for  to  keep  school,  is  now  come,  and  that  it  hath  been 
difficult  to  find  a  place  for  his  abode ;  but  now  Thomas  Kimberley*s 
house  is  agreed  upon,  and  he  intends  to  begin  his  work  next  fifth 
day  if  the  town  please ;  with  which  the  town  was  satisfied,  and  de- 
clared that  they  would  allow  him  as  they  did  Mr.  Hanford, — 
that  is,  twenty  pounds  a  year,  and  pay  for  his  diet  and  chamber ; 
and  they  expected  from  him  that  work  which  Mr.  Hanford  was  to 
do :  and  some  that  had  spoken  with  him,  declared  that  upon  these 
conditions  he  was  content." 

Mr.  Bowers  continued  to  teach  the  town  school  for 
about  seven  years.  He  was  at  first  troubled,  as  Mr. 
Hanford  had  been,  with  so  many  "  children  sent  to  him 
to  learn  their  letters  and  to  spell,  that  others,  for  whom 
the  school  was  chiefly  intended,  as  Latin  scholars," 
were  neglected.  The  town,  hearing  of  this,  charged 
two  of  the  selectmen  (as  such  officers  are  now  called, 
or  townsmen,  as  they  were  then  denominated)  to  send 
all  such  children  home,  and  desired  the  school-master 
not  to  receive  any  more  such.  He  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  hindered  in  his  usefulness  after  his  first  year 
by  this  or  any  other  difficulty,  till  the  last  year  of  his 
service.  He  then  informed  the  court,  April  23,  1660, 
"  that  the  number  of  scholars  at  present  was  but,  eigh- 
teen, and  they  are  so  unconstant  that  many  times  there 
are  but  six  or  eight.  He  desired  to  know  the  town's 
mind  whether  they  would  have  a  school  or  no  school, 
for  he  could  not  satisfy  himself  to  go  on  thus.     The 


268  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

reason  of  it  was  inquired  after,  but  not  fully  discovered 
But  that  the  school  might  be  settled  in  some  better  way 
for  the  furtherance  of  learning,  it  was  referred  to  the 
consideration  of  the  court,  elders,  and  townsmen,  who 
are  desired  to  prepare  it  for  the  next  meeting  of  the 
town."  At  the  next  meeting  "the  governor  declared 
that  the  business  of  the  school  had  also  been  considered 
by  the  committee,  but  was  left  to  be  further  considered 
when  it  appears  what  will  be  done  by  the  jurisdiction 
general  court  concerning  a  colony  school." 

The  institution  of  a  colony  school  at  New  Haven,  a 
few  months  later,  put  an  end  to  the  town  school,  absorb- 
ing  into  itself  all  the  boys  in  the  plantation  whose 
parents  wished  them  to  learn  Latin. 

The  question  naturally  rises  in  the  mind  of  one  who 
studies  in  the  early  town  records  of  New  Haven,  the 
history  of  its  schools.  What  provision  was  there  for  chil- 
dren who  had  not  yet  learned  to  read.^  So  far  as 
appears,  no  provision  was  made  at  the  public  expense 
for  children  not  sufficiently  advanced  to  enter  the  town 
school :  but  parents  were  obliged  either  personally  to 
teach  their  children,  or  to  pay  for  their  instruction  in 
private  schools.  So  early  as  February,  1645,  "Mr.  ^AA^'^ 
Pearce  desired  the  plantation  to  take  notice  that  if  any 
will  send  their  children  to  him,  he  will  instruct  them  in 
writing  or  arithmetic."  Probably  other  inhabitants  from 
time  to  time  taught  the  rudiments  of  learning  as  they 
could  obtain  pupils.  Mr.  Jcanes  seems  to  have  occupied 
a  middle  position  between  such  teachers  of  private 
schools  and  the  master  of  the  public  school,  being  re- 
garded as  less  competent  than  those  who  received  their 


LEARNING.  269 

maintenance  wholly  from  the  town,  and  yet  worthy  to 
be  encouraged  by  a  grant  from  the  public  treasury  when 
a  more  learned  man  than  he,  was  not  to  be  obtained. 

At  Guilford,  Rev.  John  Higginson  added  to  his  work 
as  teaching  elder  of  the  church,  that  of  school-master 
for  the  town.  At  a  general  court,  Oct.  7,  1646,  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  collect  the  contributions  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  elders,  and  "it  was  ordered  that 
the  additional  sum  toward  Mr.  Higginson's  maintenance 
with  respect  to  the  school  shall  be  paid  by  the  treasurer 
out  of  the  best  of  the  rates  in  due  season  according  to 
our  agreements."  As  it  was  at  the  same  time  further 
ordered  "  that  whoever  shall  put  any  child  to  school  to 
Mr.  Higginson,  shall  not  put  for  less  than  a  quarter's 
time  at  once,  and  so  all  shall  be  reckoned  with  quarterly, 
though  they  have  neglected  to  send  them  all  the  time, 
after  the  rate  of  four  shillings  per  quarter,  by  the  treas- 
urer," we  may  infer  that  the  school  was  not  free  to 
those  who  sent  their  children,  though  a  fixed  salary 
was  assured  to  the  master  by  the  town.  When  Mr. 
Higginson,  after  Mr.  Whitfield's  departure,  became  the 
only  elder  of  the  church,  other  persons  were  succes- 
sively employed  as  school-masters.  Jeremiah  Peck, 
afterward  an  ordained  minister,  was  school-master  from 
1656,' — in  which  year  he  was  married  to  a  young  lady 
of  Guilford,  —  to  1660,  when  he  removed  to  New  Haven 
to  take  charge  of  the  grammar  school  established  in 
that  year  by  the  colony. 

According  to  Lambert,  "the  first  school  in  Milford 
was  kept  by  Jasper  Gunn,  the  physician ;  *'  and  the  colo- 
nial records  in  1657  preface  an  order,  that  "endeavors 
shall  be  used  that  a  school-master  shall  be  procured  in 


270  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

every  plantation  where  a  school  is  not  already  set 
up/*  with  the  statement  that  New  Haven  hath  provided 
that  a  school-master  be  maintained  at  the  town's  charge, 
and  Milford  hath  made  provision  in  a  comfortable  way."  ' 

These  town  schools  were  chiefly  intended  for  such 
as  could  remain  long  enough  "to  make  Latin."  The 
teachers  were  men  of  liberal  education,  and  were  pro- 
cured to  teach,  because  they  were  capable  of  teaching 
something  more  and  higher  than  the  rudiments  of 
learning.  In  every  plantation  there  were  inhabitants 
who  could  teach  children  as  much  as  the  law  required 
that  they  should  learn,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  at 
first  only  reading. 

To  show,  that,  as  the  colony  grew  in  years  it  required 
a  greater  minimum  of  scholarship,  we  cite  the  addition 
made  by  the  General  Court  in  1660  to  the  law  requiring 
that  all  children  should  be  taught  to  read.  "To  the 
printed  law  concerning  the  education  of  children,  it  is 
now  added  that  the  sons  of  all  the  inhabitants  within 
this  jurisdiction  shall  (under  the  same  penalty)  be 
learned  to  write  a  legible  hand  so  soon  as  they  are  capa- 
ble of  it."  The  reader  should  take  notice,  however,  that 
the  earlier  order  refers  to  all  children  and  apprentices, 
and  the  later  to  boys  only.  The  standard  to  which  Mr. 
Davenport  would  have  brought  the  people  by  moral 
suasion,  if  not  by  authority  of  law,  was  even  higher 
than  that  enforced  by  the  court ;  for,  when  he  delivered 

'  The  omission  of  Guilford  in  this  mention  of  towns  which  in  Mav, 
1657,  were  maintaining  schools,  leads  me  to  think  that  Mr.  Peck  com- 
menced his  school  in  1657 ;  but  I  have  allowed  the  date  of  his  commence- 
ment to  remain  as  it  is  in  Sibley's  Harvard  Graduates.  Perhaps  he 
commenced  as  the  master  of  a  private  school. 


LEARNING,  2/1 

up  all  his  power  and  interest  as  a  trustee  of  Mr.  Hop- 
kins's bequest  in  aid  of  a  college,  he  embraced  the  oppor- 
tunity to  express  his  desire  "that  parents  will  keep 
such  of  their  sons  constantly  to  learning  in  the  schools 
whom  they  intend  to  train  up  for  public  serviceable- 
ness ;  and  that  all  their  sons  may  learn,  at  the  least,  to 
write  and  cast  up  accounts  competently,  and  may  make 
some  entrance  into  the  Latin  tongue.**  As  this  com- 
munication was  made  at  the  meeting  when  the  ordei 
was  passed  requiring  that  boys  should  be  taught  to 
write,  it  would  seem  that  the  freemen  were  moved  by 
Mr.  Davenport's  communication  to  pass  the  order,  but 
did  not  think  it  expedient  to  require  arithmetic  and 
Latin. 

It  was  designed  from  the  beginning,  that  "a  small 
college  should  be  settled  in  New  Haven."  '     In  laying 

'  While  they  looked  forward  to  the  establishment  of  a  college  at  home, 
the  people  of  New  Haven  in  1644  appointed  collectors  to  "receive  of  every 
one  in  this  plantation  whose  heart  is  willing  thereunto,  a  peck  of  wheat 
or  the  value  of  it,"  for  "  the  relief  of  poor  scholars  at  the  college  at  Cam- 
bridge." The  amount  of  this  contribution  may  be  learned  from  the  fol- 
lowing record  in  1645.  "Mr.  Atwater,  the  present  treasurer,  informed 
the  court  that  he  had  sent  from  Connecticut  forty  bushels  of  wheat  for 
the  college,  by  Goodman  Codman,  for  the  last  year's  gift  of  New  Haven, 
although  he  had  not  received  so  much."  This  contribution  of  college  corn 
became  an  annual  institution,  though  sometimes  there  was  less  enthusiasm 
than  at  first.  In  1647  "^^c  governor  propounded  that  the  college  com 
might  be  forthwith  paid,  considering  that  the  work  is  a  service  to  Christ 
to  bring  up  young  plants  for  his  service,  and  besides  it  will  be  a  re- 
proach that  it  shall  be  said  New  Haven  is  fallen  off  from  this  service.** 
A  few  weeks  later  "  it  was  desired  that  as  men  had  formerly  engaged 
themselves  to  contribute  a  portion  of  corn  to  the  college,  that  they  would 
not  now  be  slack  in  carrj'ing  it  to  the  collectors,  but  that  within  seven  or 
eight  days  at  farthest  those  that  are  behind  would  pay,  for  it  is  a  service 
to  Christ,  and  may  yield  precious  fruit  to  the  colonies  hereafter,  being  that 


272  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

out  their  town  the  freemen  reserved  the  tract  called 
"Oyster-shell  Field"  "for  the  use  and  benefit  of  a 
college,"  and  in  March,  1648,  directed  a  committee, 
empowered  to  dispose  of  vacant  lots  "  to  consider  and 
reser\'e  what  lot  they  shall  see  meet  and  most  commo- 
dious for  a  college,  which  they  desire  may  be  set  up 
as  soon  as  their  ability  will  reach  thereunto."  The 
subject  had  been  brought  before  the  General  Court  for 
the  jurisdiction,  at  least  as  early  as  1652 ;  for  the  town 
of  Guilford  voted  in  June  of  that  year :  —  "  That  the 
matter  about  a  college  at  New  Haven  is  thought  to  be 
190  great  a  charge  for  us  of  this  jurisdiction  to  undergo 
alone,  especially  considering  the  unsettled  state  of  New 
Haven  town,  being  publicly  declared  from  the  delib- 
erate judgment  of  the  most  understanding  men  to  be 
a  place  of  no  comfortable  subsistence  for  the  present 
inhabitants  there ;  but  if  Connecticut  do  join,  the 
planters  are  generally  willing  to  bear  their  just  propor- 
tions for  erecting  and  maintaining  a  college  there. 
However,  they  desire  thanks  to  Mr.  Goodyear  for  his 
proffer  to  the  setting  forward  of  such  a  work."  The 
records  of  the  jurisdiction  for  that  year  having  been 
lost,  we  are  indebted  to  an  allusion  to  this  offer  twelve 
years  afterward  by  Mr.  Davenport  in  sonie  remarks  in 
a  town  meeting,  for  the  knowledge  that  the  offer  of 
Mr.  Goodyear  alluded  to  by  the  Guilford  people  was  an 
offer  to  give  his  house  and  home-lot  for  the  use  of  the 
college. 

Notwithstanding  the  damper  which  Guilford  put  upon 

the  commissioners  have  taken  order  that  none  should  have  the  benefit 
of  it  but  those  that  shall  remain  in  the  country  for  the  service  of  the 
same." 


LEARNING,  2/3 

the  attempt  to  set  up  a  college,  the  people  of  New 
Haven  continued  to  hope,  and  about  two  years  after- 
ward again  agitated  the  subject.  At  a  general  court 
May  22,  1654,  "the  town  was  informed  that  there  is 
some  motion  again  on  foot  concerning  the  setting  up 
of  a  college  here  at  New  Haven,  which,  if  attained, 
will  in  all  likelihood  prove  very  beneficial  to  this  place ; 
but  now  it  is  only  propounded  to  know  the  town's 
mind,  and  whether  they  are  willing  to  further  the 
work  by  bearing  a  meet  proportion  of  charge,  if  the 
jurisdiction,  upon  the  proposal  thereof,  shall  see  cause 
to  carry  it  on.  No  man  objected,  but  all  seemed  will- 
ing, provided  that  the  pay  which  we  can  raise  here, 
will  do  it.'*  The  next  year,  at  a  general  court  May  21, 
1655,  the  subject  was  "revived;  and  in  some  respects 
this  seems  to  be  a  season,  some  disturbance  being  at 
present  at  the  college  in  the  Bay,'  and  it  is  now  in- 

'  The  disturbance  at  Harvard  College  alluded  to  was  occasioned  by 
the  outburst  of  President  Dunster's  long  pent-up  conviction  that  infant 
baptism  was  unscriptural.  Probably  some  of  the  leading  men  at  New 
Haven  were  aware,  when  in  the  preceding  year  they  made  a  motion 
for  setting  up  a  college,  that  a  storm  was  brewing  at  Cambridge ;  for 
about  three  weeks  previously  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had 
commended  to  the  "  pious  consideration  and  special  care  of  the  officers 
of  the  college  and  the  selectmen  of  the  several  towns  not  to  permit  or 
suffer  any  such  to  be  continued  in  the  office  or  place  of  teaching,  edu- 
cating, or  instructing  of  youth  or  child  in  the  college  or  schools,  that  have 
manifested  themselves  unsound  in  the  faith  or  scandalous  in  their  lives, 
and  not  giving  due  satisfaction  according  to  the  rules  of  Christ ;  forasmuch 
as  it  greatly  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  country  that  the  youth  thereof 
be  educated  not  only  in  good  literature,  but  sound  doctrine."  Mr.  Dav- 
enport and  Mr.  Hooke  knew  what  this  meant  as  well  as  President  Dunster 
himself,  who  resigned  in  the  following  month.  When  it  was  publicly 
mentioned  in  town  meeting  at  New  Haven  that  there  had  been  some  dis- 
turbance in  the  college  at  the  Bay,  the  college  had  been  eleven  months 
without  a  president. 


274  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLOXY, 

tended  to  be  propounded  to  the  General  Court :  there- 
fore this  to^Ti  may  declare  what  they  will  do  by  way 
of  encouragement  for  the  same  ;  and  it  would  be  well  if 
they  herein  give  a  good  example  to  the  other  towns  in 
the  jurisdiction,  being  free  in  so  good  a  work."  Mr. 
Davenport  and  Mr.  Hooke  were  both  present  upon  this 
occasion,  and  "spake  much  to  encourage  the  work ; "  and 
a  committee  was  appointed  "to  go  to  the  several  plant- 
ers in  this  town,  and  take  from  them  what  they  will 
freely  give  to  this  work."  On  the  30th  of  the  same 
month,  at  a  general  court  for  the  jurisdiction :  — 

"  The  governor  remembered  the  court  of  some  purposes  which 
have  formerly  been  to  set  up  a  college  at  New  Haven;  and  in- 
formed them  that  now  again  the  motion  is  renewed,  and,  that  the 
deputies  might  be  prepared  to  speak  to  it,  letters  were  sent  to  the 
plantations  to  inform  them  that  it  would  now  be  propounded.  He 
acquainted  them  also  that  New  Haven  has  in  a  free  way  of  con- 
tribution raised  above  three  hundred  pounds  to  encourage  the 
work,  and  now  desired  to  know  what  the  other  towns  will  do.  The 
magistrate  and  deputies  from  Mijford  declared,  that,  if  the  work 
might  comfortably  be  carried  on,  their  town  would  give  one  hun- 
dred pounds  ;  but  those  from  the  other  towns  seemed  not  prepared, 
as  not  having  taken  a  right  course,  and  therefore  desired  further 
time  to  speak  with  their  towns  again,  and  take  the  same  course 
New  Haven  hath  done,  and  they  will  then  return  answer :  and  for 
a  committee  to  receive  these  accounts,  and  upon  receipt  of  them 
to  consider  whether  it  be  meet  to  carrj-  on  the  work,  and  how ;  and 
whatever  considerations  and  conclusions  mav  be  meet  for  the  fur- 
therance  of  it ;  they  agree  that  each  town  choose  some  whom  they 
will  entrust  therein,  and  send  them  to  New  Haven  upon  Tuesday 
come  fortnight,  which  wnll  be  the  19th  of  June,  to  meet  in  the  after- 
noon, by  whom  also  they  promise  to  send  the  account,  what  their 
several  towns  will  jaise. for, the  work;  the  major  part  of  which  com- 
mittee meeting,  and  the  major  j)art  of  them  agreeing,  shall  conclude 
what  shall  be  done  in  this  business." 


LEARNING.  2/5 

The  time  was  not  ripe,  however,  for  setting  up  a 
college ;  and  these  endeavors  produced  no  substantial 
fruit  except  a  bequest  in  aid  of  the  intended  college, 
whicli  Mr.  Hopkins  made  at  the  solicitation  of  Mr. 
Davenport.  In  May,  1659,  however,  Mr.  Hopkins  being 
now  deceased,  the  General  Coyrt  of  the  jurisdiction  took 
action  for  establishing  a  grammar  school  for  the  colony, 
being  probably  stimulated  thereto  by  the  desire  to 
secure  Mr.  Hopkins's  bequest  for  such  an  institution  of 
learning  as  it  was  possible  for  them  to  establish,  since 
they  could  not  compass  a  college.  The  order  of  the 
Court  reads  as  follows ;  viz. :  — 

"The  Court  looking  upon  it  as  their  great  duty  to  establish 
some  course  (that,  through  the  blessing  of  God),  learning  may  be 
promoted  in  the  jurisdiction  as  a  means  for  the  fitting  of  instru- 
ments for  public  service  in  church  and  commonwealth,  did  order 
that  £\o  a  year  shall  be  paid  by  the  treasurer  for  the  furtherance 
of  a  grammar  school  for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  juris- 
diction, and  that  £fi  more  shall  be  disbursed  by  him  for  the  pro- 
curing of  books  of  Mr.  Blinman,'  such  as  shall  be  approved  by 
Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Pierson*  as  suitable  for  this  work.  The 
appointing  of  the  place  where  this  school  shall  be  settled,  the  per- 
son or  persons  to  be  employed,  the  time  of  beginning,  &c.,  is 
referred  to  the  governor,  deputy-governor,  the  magistrates,  and 
ministers  settled  in  the  jurisdiction,  or  so  many  of  them  as  upon 
due  notice  shall  meet  to  consider  of  this  matter.  The  deputy- 
governor,  with  the  deputies  of  Guilford,  did  propound  Mr.  Whit- 

*  Rev.  Richard  Blinman,  "  after  he  had  labored  about  ten  years  in  the 
ministry  at  New  London,  removed  to  New  Haven  in  1658.  After  a  short 
stay  in  that  town,  he  took  shipping,  and  returned  to  England." — TruM' 
bully  vol.  i.,  chap.  13.  The  New  Haven  town  records  show  that  he  assisted 
Mr.  Davenport  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  after  Mr.  Hooke  left  and  be- 
fore Mr.  Street  came. 

*  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson  of  Branford. 


276  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

field's  house '  freely  for  the  furtherance  of  this  work,  who  did  also 
declare  that  they  judged  it  reasonable  that  if  the  said  school  should 
be  settled  in  any  other  place  by  those  who  are  appointed  to  deter- 
mine this  question,  that  the  like  allowance  should  be  made  by  that 
plantation  where  it  falls,  answerable  to  what  by  Guilford  is  now 
propounded." 

More  than  a  year,  however,  elapsed  after  this  order 
was  passed  before  the  colony  school  went  into  operation. 
Meantime  Mr.  Davenport,  having  agreed  with  the  other 
surviving  trustees  of  Mr.  Hopkins  what  part  of  his 
bequest  should  inure  to  the  benefit  of  New  Haven, 
transferred  to  the  court  of  magistrates  his  rights  as 
a  trustee  to  receive  and  manage  this  part  of  the  be- 
quest :  — 

"  At  a  court  of  magistrates  held  at  New  Haven,  May  28,  1660, 
Mr.  John  Davenport,  pastor  to  the  church  of  Christ  at  New  Haven, 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  court,  to  be  kept  for  the  use  of  the 
magistrates  and  elders  of  this  colony,  as  is  specified  in  his  writing 
to  them,  certain  writings  concerning  a  trust  committed  to  himself 
with  some  others,  for  the  disposal  of  an  estate  given  by  the  wor- 
shipful Edward  Hopkins,  Esquire,  deceased,  for  tlie  furtherance 
of  learning  in  these  parts,  with  resignation  of  his  power  and  inter- 
est therein,  so  far  as  he  might  with  preser\'ing  in  himself  the 
power  committed  to  him  for  the  discharge  of  his  trust  (which  is 
more  fully  and  particularly  expressed  in  the  records  of  the  General 
Court),  which  was  thankfully  accepted.^' 

A  few  days  aften.vard,  a  general  court  for  the  juris- 

'  The  house  thus  offered  by  Gov.  Leete  and  the  Guilford  deputies  is 
still  standing  near  the  railway-station  in  Guilford.  Its  appearance  and  its 
internal  arrangements  have  been  somewhat  changed,  however,  by  altera- 
tions made  in  1S6S.  Mr.  Ralph  D.  Smith's  description  of  it,  as  it  was  in 
1859,  may  be  found  in  this  volume,  in  the  chapter  on  domestic  and  social 
life,  and  in  Palfrey*s  History  of  New  England. 


LEARNING.  277 

diction  was  held  at  New  Haven,  the  record  of  which 
contains  the  following  document :  — 

"  Quod  felix,  faustumque  sit  ! 

"On  the  fourth  day  of  the  fourth  month,  1660,  John  Davenport, 
pastor  to  the  church  of  Christ  at  New  Haven,  presented  to  the 
Honored  General  Court  at  New  Haven  as  followeth :  — 

"MEMORANDUM. 

"  I.  That  sundry  years  past  it  was  concluded  by  the  said  General 
Court  that  a  small  college,  such  as  the  day  of  small  things  will 
permit,  should  be  settled  in  New  Haven,  for  the  education  of  youth 
in  good  literature,  to  fit  them  for  public  services  in  church  and 
commonwealth,  as  it  will  appear  in  the  public  records. 

"  2.  Hereupon  the  said  John  Davenport  wrote  unto  our  honored 
friend,  Edward  Hopkins,  Esq.,  then  living  in  London,  the  result  of 
those  consultations ;  in  answer  whereunto  the  said  Edward  Hop- 
kins wrote  unto  the  said  John  Davenport  a  letter,  dated  the  thirtieth 
of  the  second  month,  called  April,  1656,  beginning  with  these 
words:  *Most  dear  sir,  the  long-continued  respects  I  have  re- 
ceived from  you,  but  especially  the  speakings  of  the  Lord  to  my 
heart  by  you,  have  put  me  under  deep  obligation  to  love  and  a 
return  of  thanks  beyond  what  I  ever  have  or  can  express,'  &c. 
Then  after  other  passages  (which,  being  secrets,  hinder  me  from 
showing  his  letter),  he  added  a  declaration  of  his  purpose  in  ref- 
erence to  the  college  about  which  I  wrote  unto  him :  *  That  which 
the  Lord  hath  given  me  in  those  parts,  I  ever  designed  the  great- 
est part  of  it  for  the  furtherance  of  the  work  of  Christ  in  those 
ends  of  the  earth ;  and,  if  1  understand  that  a  college  is  begun 
and  like  to  be  carried  on  at  New  Haven  for  the  good  of  posterity, 
I  shall  give  some  encouragement  thereunto.'  These  are  the  very 
words  of  his  letter,  but 

"3.  Before  Mr.  Hopkins  could  return  an  answer  to  my  next 
letter,  it  pleased  God  to  finish  his  days  in  this  world.  Therefore, 
by  his  last  will  and  testament  (as  the  copy  thereof  transcribed  and 
attested  by  Mr.  Thomas  Yale  doth  show),  he  committed  the  whole 
trust  of  disposing  of  his  estate  in  these  countries,  —  after  some 
personal  legacies  were  paid  out,  —  unto  the  public  uses  mentioned, 


278  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

and  bequeathed  it  to  our  late  honored  governor,  Theophilus  Eaton, 
Esq.,  his  father-in-law,  and  to  the  aforesaid  John  Davenport,  and 
joined  ^*nth  them  in  the  same  trust  Capt.  John  Cullick  and  Mr. 
William  Goodwin. 

"4.  It  having  pleased  the  Most  High  to  afflict  this  colony 
greatly  by  taking  from  it  to  himself  our  former  ever-honored  gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Eaton,  the  surviving  trustees  and  legatees  met  together 
to  consider  what  course  they  should  take  for  the  discharge  of  their 
trust,  and  agreed  that  each  of  them  should  have  an  inventory  of 
the  aforesaid  testator's  estate  in  New  England,  in  houses  and 
goods  and  lands  (which  were  prized  by  some  in  Hartford  intrusted 
by  Capt  Cullick  and  Mr.  Goodwin),  and  in  debts,  for  the  gather- 
ing-in  whereof  some  attorneys  were  constituted,  empowered,  and 
employed,  by  the  three  sur\'iving  trustees,  as  the  writing  in  the 
magistrates'  hands  will  show. 

"5.  Afterward  at  another  meeting  of  the  said  trustees,  they 
considering  that  by  the  will  of  the  dead  they  are  joined  together 
in  one  common  trust,  agreed  to  act  with  mutual  consent  in  per- 
formance thereof,  and  considering  that  by  the  will  of  the  testator 
two  of  New  Haven  were  joined  with  two  of  Hartford,  and  that  Mr. 
Hopkins  had  declared  his  puqxjse  to  further  the  college  intended 
at  New  Haven,  they  agreed  that  one-half  of  that  estate  which 
should  be  gathered  in,  should  be  paid  unto  Mr.  Davenport  for 
New  Haven ;  the  other  half  to  Capt.  Cullick  and  Mr.  Goodwin,  to 
be  improved  for  the  uses  and  ends  forcnoted,  where  they  should 
have  power  to  perform  their  trust;  which,  because  they  could  not 
expect  to  have  at  Hartford,  they  concluded  would  be  best  done  by 
them  in  that  new  plantation  unto  which  sundry  of  Hartford  were 
to  remove  and  were  now  gone;  yet  they  agreed  that  out  of  the 
whole,  an  ;£ioo  should  be  given  to  the  college  at  Cambridge  in  the 
Bay,  the  estate  being  ;^  1,000,  as  Capt.  Cullick  believed  it  would 
be,  which  we  how  see  cause  to  doubt,  by  reason»of  the  sequestra- 
tions laid  upon  that  estate  and  still  continued  by  the  General  Court 
at  Hartford,  whereupon  some  refuse  to  pay  their  debts,  and  others 
forsake  the  purchases  they  had  made,  to  their  great  hinderance  of 
performing  the  will  of  the  deceased  according  to  the  trust  com- 
mitted to  them,  and  to  the  endamagement  of  the  estate. 

"  6.  The  said  John  Davenport  acquainted  the  other  two  trustees 


LEARNING,  279 

with  his  purpose  to  interest  the  honored  magistrates  and  elders  of 
this  colony  in  the  disposal  of  that  part  of  the  estate  that  was,  by 
their  agreement,  to  be  paid  thereunto,  for  promoting  the  college- 
work  in  a  gradual  way,  for  the  education  of  yduth  in  good  litera- 
ture, so  far  as  he  might  with  preserving  in  himself  the  power  com- 
mitted to  him  for  the  discharge  of  his  trust.  They  consented 
thereunto.  Accordingly  on  the  election  day,  it  being  the  thirtieth 
day  of  the  third  month,  he  delivered  up  into  the  hands  of  the 
honored  governor  and  magistrates,  the  writings  that  concern  this 
business  (viz.,  the  copy  of  Mr.  Hopkins's  last  will  and  testament, 
and  the  inventory  of  his  estate  in  New  England,  and  the  appraise- 
ment of  his  goods,  and  the  writings  signed  by  the  surviving 
trustees  for  their  attorneys,  and  some  letters  between  the  other 
trustees  and  himself),  adding  also  his  desire  of  some  particulars 
for  the  well  performing  of  the  trust,  as  followeth :  — 

"  1.  He  desireth  of  New  Haven  Town,  First,  That  the  retit  of 
the  oyster-shell  field,  formerly  separated  and  reserved  for  the  use 
and  benefit  of  a  college,  be  paid  from  this  time  forward  toward 
the  making  of  some  stock  for  disbursement  of  necessary  charges 
towards  the  college  till  it  be  set  up,  and  afterward  to  continue  for 
a  yearly  rent  as  belonging  to  it,  under  the  name  and  title  of  college 
land. 

^^  Secondly,  That  if  no  place  can  be  found  more  convenient,  Mrs. 
Eldred's  lot  be  given  for  the  use  of  the  college  and  of  the  colony 
grammar  school,  if  it  be  in  this  town,  else  only  for  the  college. 

"  Thirdly,  That  parents  will  keep  such  of  their  sons  constantly 
to  learning  in  the  schools  whom  they  intend  to  train  up  for  public 
serviceableness,  and  that  all  their  sons  may  learn,  at  the  least,  to 
write  and  cast  up  accounts  competently,  and  may  make  some 
entrance  into  the  Latin  tongue. 

"  Fourthly,  That  if  the  colony  settle  £^\o  per  annum  for  a  com- 
mon school,  and^hall  add  an  ;^  100  to  be  paid  toward  the  building 
or  buying  of  a  school-house  and  library  in  this  town,  seeing  thereby 
this  town  will  be  freed  from  the  charges  which  they  have  been  at 
hitherto  to  maintain  a  town  school,  they  would  consider  what  part 
of  their  former  salary  may  be  still  continued  for  future  supplies 
toward  a  stock  for  necessary  expenses  about  the  college  or  school. 

"II.  He  humbly  desireth  the  honored  General   Court  of  the 


28o  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

colony  of  New  Haven,  Firsts  That  the  £\o  per  annum  formerly 
agreed  upon  to  be  paid  by  the  several  plantations  for  a  common 
grammar  school  be  now  settled  in  one  of  the  plantations,  which 
they  shall  judge  fittest,  and  that  a  school-master  may  forthwith  be 
provided  to  teach  the  three  languages,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew, 
so  far  as  shall  be  necessary  to  prepare  them  for  the  college, 
and  that,  if  it  can  be  accomplished,  that  such  a  school-master  be 
settled  by  the  end  of  this  summer  or  the  beginning  of  winter,  the 
payments  from  the  several  plantations  may  begin  from  this  time. 

*'*^  Secondly^  That,  if  the  common  school  be  settled  in  this  town, 
the  honored  governor,  magistrates,  elders,  and  deputies  would 
solemnly  and  together  visit  the  grammar  school,  once  ever)-  }-ear 
at  the  court  for  elections,  to  examine  the  scholars*  proficiency  in 
learning. 

"  Thirdfyy  That  for  the  pa\-ments  to  be  made  by  the  plantations 
for  the  school,  or  out  of  Mr.  Hopkins's  estate  toward  the  college, 
one  be  chosen  by  themselves,  under  the  name  and  title  of  steward 
or  receiver  for  the  school  and  college,  to  whom  such  payments 
may  be  made,  with  full  power  given  him  by  the  court  to  demand 
what  is  due  and  to  prosecute  in  case  of  neglect,  and  to  give 
acquittances  in  case  of  due  pa}'ments  received,  and  to  give  his 
account  yearly  to  the  court,  and  to  dispose  of  what  he  receiveth  in 
such  provisions  as  cannot  be  well  kept,  in  the  best  way  for  the 
aforesaid  uses,  according  to  advice. 

^^  Fourthly^  That  unto  that  end  a  committee  of  church-members 
be  chosen,  to  meet  together  and  consult  and  ad\nse  in  emergent, 
difiicult  cases,  that  may  concern  the  school  or  college,  and  which 
cannot  be  well  delayed  till  the  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  the 
governor  being  always  the  chief  of  that  committee. 

^'^  Fifthly^  The  said  John  Davenport  desireth  that  while  it  may 
please  God  to  continue  his  life  and  abode  in  this  place  (to  the  end 
that  he  may  the  better  perform  his  trust  in  reference  to  the  col- 
lege), he  be  always  consulted  in  difficult  cases,  and  have  the  power 
of  a  negative  vote,  to  hinder  any  thing  from  being  acted  which  he 
shall  prove  by  good  reason  to  be  prejudicial  to  the  true  intend- 
ment of  the  testator,  and  to  the  true  end  of  this  work. 

"  Sixthly,  That  certain  orders  be  speedily  made  for  the  school, 
and,  when  the  college  shall  proceed,  for  it  also,  that  the  education 


LEARNING,  28 1 

of  youth  may  be  carried  on  suitably  to  Christ's  ends,  by  the  coun- 
sel of  the  teaching  elders  in  this  colony ;  and  that  what  they  shall 
conclude  with  consent,  being  approved  by  the  honored  magistrates, 
be  ratified  by  the  General  Court. 

^*'  Se^fenthly^  Because  it  is  requisite  that  the  writings  which  con- 
cern Mr.  Hopkins's  estate  be  safely  kept,  in  order  thereunto  the 
said  John  Davenport  desireth  that  a  convenient  chest  be  made, 
with  two  locks  and  two  keys,  and  be  placed  in  the  house  of  the 
governor  or  of  the  steward,  in  some  safe  room,  till  a  more  public 
place  (as  a  library  or  the  like)  may  be  prepared,  and  that  one  key 
be  in  the  hand  of  the  governor,  the  other  in  the  steward's  hand ; 
that  in  this  chest  all  the  writings  now  delivered  by  him  to  the 
magistrates  may  be  kept,  and  all  other  bills,  bonds,  acquittances, 
orders,  or  whatsoever  writings  that  may  concern  this  business,  be 
put  and  kept  there ;  and  that  some  place  may  be  agreed  on  where 
the  steward  or  receiver  may  lay  up  such  provisions  as  may  be  paid 
in,  till  they  may  be  disposed  of  for  the  good  of  the  school  or 
college. 

^^  Eighthly^  Because  our  sight  is  narrow  and  weak  in  viewing 
and  discerning  the  compass  of  things  that  are  before  us,  much  more 
in  foreseeing  future  contingencies,  he  further  craveth  liberty  for 
himself  and  other  elders  of  this  colony  to  propound  to  the  honored 
governor  and  magistrates  what  hereafter  may  be  found  to  be  con- 
ducive to  the  well  carrj'ing  on  of  this  trust  according  to  the  ends 
proposed,  and  that  such  proposals  may  be  added  unto  these,  under 
the  name  and  title  of  Useful  Additioxals,  and  confirmed  by 
the  General  Court. 

^^  Lastly,  He  hopeth  he  shall  not  need  to  add  what  he  expressed 
by  word  of  mouth,  that  the  honored  General  Court  will  not  suffer 
this  gift  to  be  lost  from  the  colony,  but,  as  it  becometh  Fathers  of 
the  Commonwealth,  will  use  all  good  endeavors  to  get  it  into  their 
hands,  and  to  assert  their  right  in  it  for  the  common  good,  that 
posterity  may  reap  the  good  fruit  of  their  labors  and  wisdom  and 
faithfulness,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  may  have  the  service  and  honor 
of  such  provision  made  for  his  people,  in  whom  I  rest. 

"To  these  motions  1  desire  that  the  answer  of  the  Court, 
together  with  this  writing,  may  be  kept  among  the  records  for  the 
school  and  college. 

John  Davenport." 


282  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

To  this  communication  the  General  Court  responded 
as  follows :  — 

"  The  Court  being  deeply  sensible  of  the  small  progress  or  pro- 
ficiency in  learning  that  hath  yet  been  accomplished  in  the  way  of 
more  particular  town  schools  of  later  years  in  this  colony,  and  of 
/  the  great  difficulty  and  charge  to  make  pay,  &c^  for  the  maintain- 
'  ing  children  at  the  schools  or  college  in  the  Bay,  and  that  notwith- 
standing what  this  Court  did  order  last  year  or  formerly,  nothing 
hath  yet  been  done  to  attain  the  ends  desired,  upon  which  consid- 
erations and  other  like,  this  Court  for  further  encouragement  of 
this  work  doth  now  order  that,  over  and  above  the  ^£40  per  an- 
num, granted  the  last  year  for  the  end  then  declared,  £\oo  stock 
shall  be  duly  paid  in  from  the  jurisdiction  treasur}*,  according  to 
the  manner  and  times  agreed  and  expressed  in  the  court  records, 
giving  and  granting  that  special  respect  to  our  brethren  at  New 
Haven,  to  be  first  in  embracing  or  refusing  the  court's  encourage- 
ment or  provision  for  a  school,  whether  to  be  settled  at  New 
Haven  town  or  not ;  but  if  they  shall  refuse,  Milford  is  to  have  the 
next  choice,  then  Guilford,  and  so  in  order  every  other  town  on 
the  main  within  the  jurisdiction  have  their  liberty  to  accept  or 
refuse  the  court's  tender ;  yet  it  is  most  desired  of  all  that  New 
Haven  would  accept  the  business,  as  being  a  place  most  probable 
to  advantage  the  well  carr}'ing  on  of  the  school  for  the  ends  sought 
after  and  endeavored  after  thereby ;  but  the  college  after  spoken 
of  is  affixed  to  New  Haven,  if  the  Lord  shall  succeed  that  under- 
taking. It  is  further  agreed  that  all  and  every  plantation  who  have 
any  mind  to  accept  the  propositions  about  the  school,  shall  prepare 
and  send  in  their  answer  unto  the  committee  chosen  of  all  the 
magistrates  and  settled  elders  of  this  jurisdiction,  to  order,  regu- 
late, and  dispose  all  matters  concerning  the  school  (as  the  provid- 
ing instruments  and  well  carr}'ing  on  of  the  business)  from  time  to 
time  as  they  shall  judge  best,  before  the  24th  of  June  instant, 
that  so  if  any  plantation  do  accept,  the  committee  may  put  forth 
their  endeavors  to  settle  the  business :  but  if  all  refuse,  then  it 
must  be  suspended  until  another  meeting  of  this  General  Court. 

*'And  for  further  encouragement  of  learning  and  the  good  of 
posterity  in  that  way,  Mr.  John  Davenport,  pastor  of  the  Church 


LEARNING.  283 

of  Christ,  at  New  Haven,  presented  a  writing,  as  before  appears, 
whereby  and  wherewith  he  delivered  up  all  his  power  and  interest 
as  a  trustee  by  Mr.  Hopkins,  for  recovering  and  bestowing  of  all 
that  legacy  given  by  him  for  the  end  of  furtherance  to  the  settle- 
ment of  a  college  at  New  Haven ;  he  also  propounded  therewith, 
what  he  apprehends  hath  been  granted  and  set  apart  by  the  town 
of  New  Haven  for  the  same  end,  with  a  request  that  matters  there- 
abouts might  be  ordered  and  carried  on  according  to  such  proposi- 
tions as  are  therein  set  down.  All  which  the  General  Court  took 
thankfully,  both  from  the  donors  and  Mr.  Davenport,  and  accepted 
the  trust,  and  shall  endeavor  by  God's  help  to  get  in  the  said 
estate  and  improve  it  to  the  end  it  was  given  for. 

*'  By  way  of  further  answer  to  what  was  propounded  by  Mr. 
Davenport  in  his  writing  presented,  the  Court  declared  that  it  was 
their  desire  that  the  colony  school  may  begin  at  the  time  pro- 
pounded, and  to  that  end  desire  that  endeavors  may  be  put  forth 
by  the  committee  of  magistrates  and  settled  elders  formerly  ap- 
pointed, for  the  providing  a  school-master,  &c.,  to  whom  also  they 
leave  it  to  appoint  a  steward  or  receiver,  which  steward  or  receiver 
they  empower  as  is  propounded,  and  to  settle  a  committee  from 
among  themselves  to  issue  emergent  cases,  and  to  take  order  that 
a  chest  be  provided  wherein  the  writings  may  be  laid  up  that  con- 
cern this  business.  The  Court  further  declared  that  they  do  invest 
Mr.  Davenport  with  the  power  of  a  negative  vote,  for  the  reason 
and  in  the  cases  according  to  the  terms  in  his  writing  specified, 
and  that  they  shall  be  ready  to  confirm  such  orders  as  shall  be  pre- 
sented, which  in  the  judgment  of  the  Court  shall  be  conducible  to 
the  main  end  intended. 

"It  is  ordered  for  encouragement  of  such  as  shall  diligently 
and  constantly,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  civil  authority  in  each 
plantation,  apply  themselves  to  due  use  of  means  for  the  attain- 
ment of  learning,  which  may  fit  them  for  public  service,  that  they 
shall  be  freed  from  payment  of  rates  with  respect  to  their  persons ; 
provided  that  if  any  such  shall  leave  off,  or  not  constantly  attend 
those  studies,  they  shall  then  be  liable  to  pay  rates  in  all  respects 
as  other  men  are. 

**It  is  ordered  that  if  the  colony  school  shall  begin  any  time 
within  the  first  half  year  from  this  court  of  election,  that  £\o  shall 


284  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

be  paid  by  the  treasurer  for  this  year,  and  if  it  shall  begin  at  any 
time  before  the  election  next,  that  £10  shall  be  paid  by  the  treas- 
urer upon  that  account 

"  To  the  printed  law  concerning  the  education  of  children,  it  is 
now  added,  that  the  sons  of  all  the  inhabitants  within  this  jurisdic- 
tion shall,  under  the  same  penalty,  be  learned  to  write  a  legible 
hand,  so  soon  as  they  are  capable  of  it" 

The  next  record  concerning  the  colony  school  which 
we  find,  was  made. by  the  town  of  New  Haven,  and  is 
as  follows :  — 

"1660,  June  21  St 

"The  orders  made  by  the  General  Court  in  May  last,  also  a 
writing  of  Mr.  Davenport  by  him  then  delivered  in  to  the  General 
Court  concerning  a  school  and  college,  were  both  read ;  after  which 
the  governor  declared  that  formerly  the  Court  had  taken  care  that 
\  schools  of  learning  might  be  settled  in  the  several  plantations,  but 
i  finding  that  means  did  not  attain  the  end  propounded,  they  have 
now,  as  by  their  order  read  appears,  provided  for  the  settling  of  a 
colony  school  (for  teaching  of  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew^  in  some 
one  of  the  plantations,  which  they  first  tender  to  New  Haven  to 
accept  if  they  shall  see  cause  so  to  do  upon  the  encouragement 
they  have  agreed  upon ;  viz.,  ;£ioo  stock  for  the  providing  a  house 
for  the  master  to  live  in  and  a  school-house,  and  £^  per  annum. 
Sergeant  Jeffrey  desired  that  the  town  [  ]  the  compass  of  the 

business.  To  which  it  was  answered  that  it  appears  by  the  order 
read,  that  the  jurisdiction  allows  £\oo  stock  and  £^\o  per  annum 
for  the  salary ;  but  what  it  comes  to  more,  that  town  which  accepts 
their  tender  must  make  up.  After  the  business  had  been  debated 
and  considered,  it  was,  by  the  vote  of  the  town,  generally  declared, 
that  upon  the  jurisdiction's  encouragement,  the  school  shall  be 
settled  at  New  Haven.  To  which  end,  Mr.  Gilbert,  Lieutenant 
Nash,  Sergeant  Munson,  and  John  Cooper  were  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  provide  a  house  for  the  school-master  and  a  school-house, 
and  therein  to  use  their  best  discretion  whether  to  buy  or  build, 
so  as  may  answer  the  end,  yet  with  as  good  husbandry  for  the 
town  as  may  be." 


1 


LEARNING,  285 

• 

At  the  same  court  "  it  was  also  by  the  governor  pro- 
pounded concerning  Oyster-shell  Field,  that  as  it  hath 
been  from  the  first  intended  (as  hath  been  often  said) 
for  the  use  of  a  college,  that  it  might  now  be  actually 
set  apart  for  that  use,  as  Mr.  Davenport  in  his  writing 
hath  desired,  which  was  also  debated ;  and  the  town 
generally  showed  their  willingness,  that  if  it  shall  please 
God  in  his  providence  so  to  order  it  that  a  college  be 
settled  and  set  up  at  New  Haven,  that  then  the  Oyster- 
shell  Field  shall  be  set  apart  for  that  use.  But  to  do  it 
before  that  was  not  granted." 

From  the  colony  records  we  extract  the  following :  — 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  for  the  school,  June  28th,  1660, 
there  were  present  the  governor,*  the  deputy-governor,*  Mr.  Treat, 
Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Street.  It  was  agreed  that  Mr.  Peck,  now  at 
Guilford,  should  be  school-master,  and  that  it  should  begin  in 
October  next,  when  his  half-year  expires  there ;  he  is  to  keep  the 
school,  to  teach  the  scholars  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  and  fit 
them  for  the  college  ;  and  for  the  salar}%  he  knows  the  allowance 
from  the  colony  is  £\o  a  year ;  and  for  further  treaties,  they  must 
leave  it  to  New  Haven,  where  the  school  is  ;  and  for  further  orders 
concerning  the  school  and  well  carrying  it  on,  the  elders  will  con- 
sider of  some  against  the  court  of  magistrates  in  October  next, 
when  things,  as  there  is  cause,  may  be  further  considered.  Mr. 
Crane  and  Mr.  Pierson  came  after  the  business  was  concluded, 
and  what  is  above  written  was  read  to  them,  and  they  fully  ap- 
proved of  it ;  and  after  that,  being  read  to  Mr.  Gilbert,  he  approved 
of  it  also." 

At  a  town  meeting  in  New  Haven,  July  25  of  the 
same  year,  the  governor  communicated  the  action  of 
the  committee  as  above,  and  "further  informed  that 
upon  the  eleventh  of  July,  Mr.  Peck  coming  over  him- 

'  Newman.  "  Leete. 


286  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

self,  with  such  of  the  court  and  townsmen  as  could  be 
got  together,  had  a  treaty  with  him,  who  propounded 
that  unto  the  ^40  per  annum  allowed  by  the  jurisdic- 
tion, ^10  per  year,  with  a  comfortable  house  for  his 
dwelling,  and  a  school-house,  and  the  benefit  of  such 
scholars  as  are  not  of  the  jurisdiction,  and  such  part 
of  the  accommodations  belonging  to  the  house  lately 
purchased  of  Mr.  Kitchel  (at  a  moderate  price),  as  he 
shall  desire,  with  some  liberty  of  commonage,  all  which 
the  town  now  consented  to,  and  by  vote  determined  to 
allow  to  Mr.  Peck ;  which  the  governor  now  promised 
to  give  him  information  of." 

According  to  the  arrangement  thus  made,  the  colony 
school  went  into  operation  in  the  autumn  of  1660.  At 
the  General  Court  held  in  May  of  the  following  year, 
"there  were  sundry  propositions  presented  by  Mr. 
Peck,  school-master,  to  this  court,  as  followeth  :  — 

^^  First,  That  the  master  shall  be  assisted  with  the  power  and 
counsel  of  any  of  the  honored  magistrates  or  reverend  elders,  as  he 
finds  need,  or  the  case  may  require.  2.  That  rec tores  schola  be  now 
appointed  and  established.  3.  What  is  that  the  jurisdiction  ex- 
pects from  the  master  ?  Whether  any  thing  besides  instruction  in 
the  languages  and  oratory?  4.  That  two  indifferent  men  be  ap- 
pointed to  prove  and  send  to  the  master  such  scholars  as  be  ntted 
for  his  tuition.  5.  That  two  men  be  appointed  to  take  care  of  the 
school,  to  repair  and  supply  necessaries,  as  the  case  may  require. 
6.  Whether  the  master  shall  have  liberty  to  be  at  neighbors*  meet- 
ings once  every  week  ?  7.  Whether  it  may  not  be  permitted  that 
the  school  may  begin  but  at  eight  of  the  clock  all  the  winter  half- 
year  ?  8.  That  the  master  shall  have  liberty  to  use  any  books  that 
do  or  shall  belong  to  the  school.  9.  That  the  master  shall  have 
libertv  to  receive  into  and  instruct  in  the  school,  scholars  sent  from 
other  places  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  and  that  he  shall  receive  the 
benefit  of  them,  over  and  above  what  the  jurisdiction  doth  pay 


LEARNING,  28/ 

him.  10.  That  the  master  may  have  a  settled  habitation,  not  at 
his  own  charge,  ii.  That  he  shall  have  a  week's  vacation  in  the 
year  to  improve,  as  the  case  may  require.  12.  That  his  person 
and  estate  shall  be  rate-free  in  every  plantation  of  this  jurisdiction. 

13.  That  half  the  year's  payment  shall  be  made  to,  and  accounts 
cleared  with,  the  master,  within  the  compass  of  every  half  year. 

14.  That  ;^4o  per  annum  be  paid  to  the  school-master  by  the  juris- 
diction treasurer,  and  that  £\o  per  annuni  be  paid  to  him  by  New 
Haven  treasurer.  15.  That  the  major  part  of  the  foresaid  pay- 
ments shall  be  made  to  the  school-master  in  these  particulars  as 
foUoweth ;  viz.,  30  bushels  of  wheat,  2  barrels  of  pork,  and  2  bar- 
rels of  beef,  40  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  30  bushels  of  pease,  2  fir- 
kins of  butter,  100  pounds  of  flax,  30  bushels  of  oats.  Lastly^ 
That  the  honored  Court  would  be  pleased  to  consider  of  and  settle 
these  things  this  court  time,  and  to  confirm  the  consequent  of  them, 
the  want  of  which  things,  especially  some  of  them,  doth  hold  the 
master  under  discouragement  and  unsettlement ;  yet  these  things 
being  suitably  considered  and  confirmed,  if  it  please  the  honored 
Court  further  to  improve  him  wlio  at  present  is  school-master,  al- 
though unworthy  of  any  such  respect,  and  weak  for  such  a  work, 
yet  his  real  intention  is  to  give  up  himself  to  the  work  of  a  gram- 
mar school,  as  it  shall  please  God  to  give  opportunity  and  assist- 
ance. 

"  The  Court,  considering  of  these  things,  did  grant  as  followeth ; 
viz.,  to  the  second,  they  did  desire  and  appoint  Mr.  John  Daven- 
port, sen.,  Mr.  Street,  and  Mr.  Pierson,  to  take  that  care  and  trust 
upon  them ;  to  the  third,  they  declared  that  besides  that  which  he 
expressed,  they  expected  he  would  teach  them  to  write  so  far  as 
was  necessary  to  his  work ;  to  the  fourth,  they  declared  that  they 
left  it  to  those  before  mentioned ;  to  the  eighth,  they  declared  that 
he  should  have  the  use  of  those  books,  provided  a  list  of  them  be 
taken ;  the  ninth  they  left  to  the  committee  for  the  school ;  and 
the  rest  they  granted  in  general,  except  the  pork  and  butter,  and 
for  that  they  did  order  that  he  should  have  one  barrel  of  pork  and 
one  firkin  of  butter,  provided  by  the  jurisdiction  treasurer,  though 
it  be  with  some  loss  to  the  jurisdiction,  and  that  he  should  have 
wheat  for  the  other  barrel  of  pork.  This  being  done,  Mr.  Peck 
seemed  to  be  very  well  satisfied." 


288  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

The  school  thus  established  continued  only  about 
two  years,  being  discontinued  partly  on  account  of  the 
paucity  of  scholars,  and  partly  on  account  of  the  expense 
of  litigation  with  Connecticut  concerning  her  assump- 
tion of  title  to  the  territory  of  New  Haven,  which 
threatened  to  exhaust  the  treasury.  The  vote  to  dis- 
continue is  thus  recorded  :  — 

"  At  a  General  Court  held  at  New  Haven,  for  the  jurisdiction, 
Nov.  5,  1662,  it  was  propounded  as  a  thing  left  to  be  issued  at 
the  next  General  Court  after  May  last,  by  the  committee  for  the 
school,  whether  they  would  continue  the  colony  school  or  lay  it 
down.  The  business  being  debated,  it  came  to  this  conclusion, 
that,  considering  the  distraction  of  the  time,  that  the  end  is  not 
attained  for  which  it  was  settled  no  way  proportionable  to  the 
charges  expended,  and  that  the  colony  is  in  expectation  of  una- 
voidable necessary  charges  to  be  expended,  did  conclude  to  lay  it 
down,  and  the  charges  to  cease  when  this  half-year  is  up  at  the  end 
of  this  month." 

How  far  the  school  came  short  of  attaining  the  end 
for  which  it  was  established,  may  be  seen  in  the  light 
of  some  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Davenport  in  a  town 
meeting  held  the  preceding  August.  "  Mr.  Davenport 
further  propounded  to  the  town  something  about  the 
colony  school,  and  informed  them  that  the  committee 
for  the  school  made  it  a  great  objection  against  the 
keeping  of  it  up,  that  this  town  did  not  send  scholars 
to  it,  only  five  or  six ;  now,  therefore,  if  you  would  not 
have  that  benefit  taken  away,  you  should  send  your  chil- 
dren to  it  constantly,  and  not  take  them  off  so  often ; 
and  further  said  that  he  was  in  the  school,  and  it 
grieved  him  to  see  how  few  scholars  were  there." 

The  colony  school  being  discontinued,  the  town  of 


LEARNING.  289 

New  Haven  negotiated  with  George  Pardee,  one  of 
their  own  people,  to  teach  the  children  "  English,  and 
to  carry  them  on  in  Latin  so  far  as  he  could.  The  busi- 
ness was  debated,  and  some  expressed  themselves  to 
this  purpose,  that  it  is  scarce  known  in  any  place  to  have 
a  free  school  for  teaching  English  and  writing,  but  yet 
showed  themselves  willing  to  have  something  allowed 
by  the  public,  and  the  rest  by  the  parents  and  masters 
of  such  that  went  to  school ;  and  in  the  issue  twenty 
pounds  was  propounded  and  put  to  vote,  and  by  vote 
concluded  to  be  allowed  to  George  Pardee  for  this  year 
out  of  the  town  treasury,  and  the  rest  to  be  paid  by 
those  that  sent  scholars  to  the  school,  as  he  and  they 
could  agree.  This,  George  Pardee  agreed  to,-  to  make 
trial  of  for  one  year.  He  was  also  advised  to  be  care- 
ful to  instruct  the  youth  in  point  of  manners,  there 
being  a  great  fault  in  that  respect,  as  some  expressed.'* 

Our  history  of  schools  in  the  colony  of  New  Haven 
might  here  come  to  a  conclusion,  for,  when  the  year 
expired  for  which  Mr.  Pardee  was  engaged,  the  colony 
of  New  Haven  had  become  absorbed  into  the  colony  of 
Connecticut,  and  thus  lost  not  only  its  name  but  its 
existence  as  a  jurisdiction. 

But  it  will  not  be  deemed  improper  to  add  that  within 
two  years  after  the  union,  the  town  of  New  Haven, 
stimulated  by  its  desire  to  secure  to  itself  that  part  of 
Gov.  Hopkins's  bequest  which  was  in  the  power  of 
Mr.  Davenport,  established  a  "grammar  or  collegiate 
school,"  and  invited  Mr.  Samuel  Street  to  be  the  school- 
master. The  town  appropriated  ;^30  per  annum,  and 
the  Hopkins  estate  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Davenport 
yielded  by  this  time  ;^io  more.     A  few  months  after- 


290  HISTORY  OF  XEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY. 

ward,  Mr.  Davenport  came  into  the  town  meeting,  and 
"  desired  to  speak  something  concerning  the  school ; 
and  first  propounded  to  the  town  whether  they  would 
send  their  children  to  the  school,  to  be  taught  for  th^ 
fitting  them  for  the  service  of  God  in  church  and  com- 
monwealth. If  they  would,  then  he  said  that  the  grant 
of  that  part  of  Mr.  Hopkins*  estate  formerly  made  to 
this  town  stands  good ;  but  if  not,  then  it  is  void, 
because  it  attains  not  the  end  of  the  donor.  Therefore 
he  desired  they  would  express  themselves.  Upon  which 
Roger  Ailing  declared  his  purpose  of  bringing  up  one 
of  his  sons  to  learning ;  also  Henry  Glover,  one  of  Wil- 
liam Russel's ;  John  Winston ;  Mr.  Hodson ;  Thomas 
Trowbridge ;  David  Atwater ;  Thomas  Mix ;  and  Mr. 
Augur  said  that  he  intended  to  send  for  a  kinsman  from 
England.  Mr.  Samuel  Street  declared  that  there  were 
eight  at  present  in  Latin,  and  three  more  would  come 
in  in  summer,  and  two  more  before  next  winter.  Upon 
which  Mr.  Davenport  seemed  to  be  satisfied,  but  yet 
declared  that  he  must  always  rescn-e  a  negative  voice, 
that  nothing  be  done  contrary  to  the  true  intent  of  the 
donor,  and  that  it  be  improved  only  for  that  use ;  and 
therefore,  while  it  can  be  so  improved  here,  it  shall  be 
settled  here ;  but  if  New  Haven  will  neglect  their  own 
good  herein,  he  must  improve  it  otherwhere  unto  that 
end  that  may  answer  the  will  of  the  dead." 

As  this  declaration  of  Mr.  Davenport  was  made  in 
February,  1668,  and  he  removed  to  Boston  some  two  or 
three  months  afterward,  having  in  the  previous  Septem- 
ber received  a  call  to  the  pastorate  of  the  first  church 
there,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  people  of  New  Haven 
had  some  reason  at  that  time  to  apprehend  that  they 


LEARNING,  29 1 

might  lose  the  benefit  of  the  Hopkins  bequest.  On  the 
1 8th  of  April,  however,  Mr.  Davenport  executed  a  deed 
of  trust,  in  which  he  conveyed  unto  "William  Jones, 
assistant  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Nicholas  Street,  teacher  of  the  church  of  Christ  at  New 
Haven,  Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  Mr.  John  Davenport, 
jun.,  and  James  Bishop,  commissioned  magistrates, 
Deacons  William  Peck  and  Roger  Ailing,  and  to 
their  successors,"  his  interest  in  the  Hopkins  bequest ; 
reserving  "  full  power  of  a  negative  voice,  while  it  shall 
please  God  to  continue  my  living  and  abiding  in  this 
country  or  any  part  of  it ;  '*  appending  the  condition 
that  the  rent  of  Oyster-shell  Field  and  of  Mrs.  Eldred*s 
lot  should  be  to  the  use  of  the  school ;  and  declaring 
null  and  void  his  former  conveyance  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  a  "colony  school,"  on  the  ground  that  the 
colony  school  had  been  dissolved  by  the  act  of  the 
General  Court  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven.* 

The  Hopkins  Grammar  School  thus  established,  has, 
with  some  intermissions  which  occurred  early  in  its  his- 
tory, afforded  to  the  boys  of  New  Haven  from  that  time 
to  the  present  day,  opportunity  "  to  be  taught  for  the 
fitting  them  for  the  service  of  God  in  church  and  com- 
monwealth." It  opens  its  doors  so  indiscriminately  to 
the  children  of  all  classes  of  people.  Christian,  Jewish, 
and  pagan,  that  the  following  action  of  the  town  may 
perhaps  awaken  the  risibles  of  the  reader :  — 

"At  a  town  meeting  in  New  Haven,  Dec.  9,  1728,  Voted,  That 
the  land  lying  in  the  governor's  quarter  in  New  Haven  called  the 
Oyster-shell  Field  be  put  into  the  hand  of  the  school  committee 
in  New  Haven  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Hopkins  Com- 
mittee, as  they  now  be  or  hereafter  shall  be,  according  to  their 

*  See  Appendix  V. 


292  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY, 

constitution  or  custom,  by  them  to  be  improved  for  the  upholding 
and  maintaining  a  grammar  school  in  the  first  parish  in  this  town. 
for  the  educating  of  children  of  Congregational  or  Presbyterian 
parents  only,  and  no  other  use  whatsoever  forever  hereafter :  and 
if  it  shall  hereafter  be  thought  most  advantageous  to  make  sale  of 
the  lands  commonly  called  the  0}'ster-shell  Field  as  aforesaid,  and 
the  major  part  of  proprietors  in  this  town  shall  agree  thereto,  the 
money  thereby  produced  shall  be  past  into  the  hands  of  said  com- 
mittee to  be  improved  as  aforesaid,  and  to  no  other  use  whatso- 
ever." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


MILITARY   AFFAIRS. 


EACH  of  the  colonies  of  New  England  had  its  mil- 
itary chieftain.  A  captain  was  as  necessary  as  a 
magistrate.  Miles  Standish  came  with  the  pilgrims 
from  Leyden  to  Plymouth ;  but,  so  far  as  appears,  he 
came  as  a  soldier  rather  than  as  a  Separatist.  He  was  a 
man  of  pure  morals,  but  never  identified  himself  with 
the  church  at  Plymouth.  It  was  not  required  in  that 
colony,  as  it  was  in  Massachusetts  ^.nd  in  New  Haven, 
that  military  officers  should  be  church-members.  Of 
the  expedition  sent  by  Massachusetts  against  the  Pe- 
quots  in  1636,  John  Endicott  was  chief  captain  ;  John 
Underbill,  Nathanael  Turner,  and  William  Jenningson, 
were  subordinate  captains  ;  and  there  were  other  infe- 
rior officers.  As  the  number  of  privates  did  not  exceed 
one  hundred  in  number.  Underbill,  in  his  narrative  of 
the  expedition,  apologizes  for  the  unusual  proportion  of 
officers.  "  I  would  not  have  the  world  wonder  at  the 
great  number  of  commanders  to  so  few  men,  but  know 
that  the  Indians*  fight  far  differs  from  the  Christian 
practice,  for  they  most  commonly  divide  themselves  into 
small  bodies  ;  so  that  we  are  forced  to  neglect  our  usual 
way,  and  to  subdivide  our  divisions  to  answer  theirs, 

and  not  thinking  it  any  disparagement  to  any  captain 

293 


294  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

to  go  forth  against  an  enemy  with  a  squadron  of  men, 
taking  the  ground  from  the  old  and  ancient  practice 
when  they  chose  captains  of  hundreds  and  captains  of 
thousands,  captains  of  fifties  and  captains  of  tens.  We 
conceive  a  captain  signifieth  the  chief  in  way  of  com- 
mand of  any  body  committed  to  his  charge  for  the  time 
being ;  whether  of  more  or  less,  it  makes  no  matter  in 
power,  though  in  honor  it  does." 

Eaton  and  Davenport  not  knowing,  when  they  left 
England,  that  they  should  settle  afar  from  their  friends 
in  Massachusetts,  had  not  been  careful  to  bring  with 
them  a  military  chief.  During  the  winter  they  spent  at 
the  Bay  they  found  a  valuable  accession  to  their  com- 
pany in  Nathanael  Turner,  one  of  the  three  captains  of 
the  first  Pequot  expedition  who  were  subordinate  only 
to  Endicott.  Having  lost  his  house  at  Lynn  (then  called 
Sagus)  by  fire,  in  Januar)%  1637,  "  with  all  that  was  in  it 
save  the  persons,"  he  was  free  to  listen  to  proposals 
from  a  company,  which,  with  large  resources,  proposed 
to  settle  at  Quinnipiac.  He  listened,  and  was  persuaded 
to  take  part  in  the  responsibilities  and  rewards  of  the 
undertaking.  Capt.  Turner  was  invested  with  mili- 
tary command  at  Quinnipiac  during  the  time  of  the 
provisional  authority  which  preceded  the  permanent 
settlement  of  civil  affairs  in  the  plantation  ;  for,  on  the 
25th  of  November,  1639,  only  thirty  days  after  the 
organization  of  the  court,  and,  so  far  as  appears  on 
the  record,  before  any  appointment  of  militar)-  oflficcrs 
had  been  made,  it  was  "  ordered  that  ever)*  one  that 
bears  arms  shall  be  completely  furnished  with  arms ; 
viz.,  a  musket,  a  sword,  bandoleers,  a  rest,  a  pound  of 
powder,  twenty  bullets  fitted  to  their  musket,  or  four 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS,  2g$ 

pounds  of  pistol-shot  or  swan-shot  at  least,  and  be  ready 
to  show  them  in  the  market-place  upon  Monday,  the 
1 6th  of  this  (sic)  month,  before  Capt.  Turner  and 
Lieut.  Seeley,  under  the  penalty  of  twenty  shillings 
fine  for  every  default  or  absence.'* 

On  the  first  day  of  September  following,  "  Mr.  Turner 
was  chosen  captain  to  have  the  command  and  ordering 
of  all  martial  affairs  of  this  plantation,  as  setting  and 
ordering  of  watches,  exercising  and  training  of  soldiers, 
and  whatsoever  of  like  nature  appertaining  to  his  office  ; 
all  which  he  is  to  do  with  all  faithfulness  and  diligence, 
and  be  ready  at  all  times  to  do  whatsoever  service  the 
occasions  of  the  to,wn  may  require."  This  seems  to 
have  been  a  permanent  appointment ;  for  he  continued 
in  office,  till,  having  determined  to  visit  the  mother 
country,  he  had  embarked  in  Lamberton's  vessel.  Then 
"the  governor  propounded  whether  the  military  affairs  of 
the  town  may  be  comfortably  carried  on  without  a  cap- 
tain, or  whether  it  were  not  convenient  to  choose  a  cap- 
tain instead  of  Capt.  Turner,  not  knowing  when  he  will 
return.  After  some  debate,  Mr.  Malbon  was  chosen 
captain,  with  liberty  to  resign  his  place  to  Capt.  Turner 
at  his  return." 

Robert  Seeley,  above  mentioned  as  lieutenant  before 
the  adoption  of  the  fundamental  agreement,  was  for- 
mally elected  to  that  oflfice  Aug.  6,  1642.  In  1649  he 
asked  the  town  to  excuse  him  from  further  service,  but 
the  Court  was  unwilling  to  do  so  ;  and  "  it  was  pro- 
pounded that  the  men  in  the  town  would  underwrite 
what  they  would  give  toward  the  maintenance  of  Lieut. 
Seeley  in  his  place."  Before  the  settlement  of  New 
Haven,  Seeley  had  been  the  lieutenant  of  Capt.  Mason 


296  HISTORY  OF  XEIV  If  A  TEX  COLOATY. 

in  the  expedition  from  Connecticut  against  the  Pe- 
quots  in  1637.  He  had  passed  Quinnipiac  in  the 
chase  of  the  Pequots  westward,  and,  unless  Turner  was 
with  him  in  that  pursuit,  had  been  the  first  of  those 
who  soon  afterward  settled  there  as  planters  to  set  his 
eyes  on  its  hills  and  meadows,  its  creeks,  rivers,  and 
fair  haven. 

Soon  after  the  inspection  of  arms  appointed  in  No- 
vember, 1639,  it  was  ordered  that  a  similar  inspection 
should  take  place  quarterly ;  and  it  was  defined  that 
"every  one  that  beareth  arms"  meant  "ever)'  male 
from  sixteen  to  sixty  years  of  age,  who  shall  dwell  or 
sojourn  within  this  plantation  or  any  part  of  the  bounds 
and  limits  of  it  for  a  month  together."  The  number  of 
persons  thus  made  subject  to  militar)'  duty  was  in  1642 
not  less  than  two  hundred  and  seventeen,  as  there  were 
then  thirty-one  watches,  each  consisting  of  seven  men. 
The  whole  company  was  divided  into  four  squadrons, 
each  commanded  by  a  sergeant ;  and  the  squadrons 
being  trained  in  succession,  one  on  Saturday  of  each 
week  for  four  weeks,  there  was  ever)'  fifth  week  a  gen- 
eral training  of  the  whole  company,  which  occurred 
always  on  Monday.  The  squadron-training  was  omitted 
that  week.  At  a  later  date  the  number  of  general  train- 
ings was  reduced  to  six  in  a  year ;  and  after  the  organ- 
ization, in  164S,  of  a  volunteer  artillery  company,  whose 
members  were  exempt  from  squadron-training,  the  four 
squadrons  were  exercised  two  at  once,  and  only  required 
to  train  each  six  times  a  year. 

Besides  the  oflScers  alreadv  mentioned,  "the  trained 
band  "  had  an  ensign,  four  sergeants,  and  four  corporals. 
In  1642  the  ensign,  or  antient  as  he  was  usually  styled, 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  297 

was  Francis  Newman,  afterward  governor  of  the  juris- 
diction. The  sergeants  contemporary  with  him  were 
William  Andrews,  Thomas  Munson,  John  Clark,  and 
Thomas  Jeffrey  ;  and  the  corporals  were  Thomas  Kim- 
berley,  John  Moss,  John  Nash,  and  Samuel  Whitehead. 

Fines  for  absence  and  late-coming,  whether  on  days 
of  general  training  or  on  squadron  days,  were  given  up 
to  the  military  officers  and  company  for  their  encourage- 
ment, "  to  be  disposed  in  powder  and  shot,  that  they 
may  set  up  marks  to  shoot  at,  or  may  furnish  themselves 
for  their  military  exercises."  A  portion  of  Oyster-shell 
Field  was  set  apart  for  "a  shooting-place ;"  and  here,  on 
training-days,  the  soldiers  were  exercised  in  target 
practice. 

The  arms  which  the  militia  were  required  to  show 
were,  in  the  revision  of  the  orders,  specified  as  "  a  good 
serviceable  gun,  a  good  sword,  bandoleers,  a  rest,  all  to 
be  allowed  by  the  military  officers  ;  one  pound  of  good 
gunpowder,  four  pounds  of  bullets,  either  fitted  for  his 
gun,  or  pistol  bullets,  with  four  fathom  of  match  fit 
for  service  with  every  matchlock,  and  four  or  five  good 
flints  fitted  for  every  firelock  piece,  all  in  good  order,  and 
ready  for  any  sudden  occasion,  service,  or  view."  The 
order  makes  it  indifferent  whether  the  gun  be  a  match- 
lock or  a  firelock ;  only  if  the  soldier  have  a  firelock,  he 
must  be  furnished  with  a  sufficiency  of  flints,  and  if  his 
gun  is  a  matchlock,  he  must  have  a  sufficiency  of  match. 
Any  musket  of  the  seventeenth  century  would  seem  to 
us  ludicrously  inferior  to  those  with  which  modern 
soldiers  arc  provided ;  but  even  the  matchlock  gave  its 
possessor,  so  long  as  he  had  a  rest  and  a  match,  im- 
mense superiority  over  an  enemy  destitute  of  fire-arms. 


298  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

The  muskets  of  that  day  had  no  bayonet ;  but  sol- 
diers were  sometimes  exercised  in  the  use  of  the  pike, 
a  weapon  consisting  of  a  long  wooden  shaft  pointed 
with  steel.  New  Haven,  while  requiring  each  soldier 
to  be  equipped  with  a  musket  at  his  own  cost,  provided 
pikes  at  the  public  expense. 

"It  is  ordered  that  a  convenient  company  and  number  of  pikes 
be  provided  at  the  town's  charge,  that  the  militarj'  and  artillery 
companies  may  be  trained  and  exercised  in  the  use  of  them,  but 
no  man  hereby  to  be  freed  from  providing,  and  at  all  times  continu- 
ing furnished,  with  all  other  arms,  powder,  and  shot,  as  before  ex- 
pressed ;  and  that  a  chest  be  made  in  some  convenient  place  in  the 
meeting-house,  to  keep  the  said  pikes  from  warping  or  other  hurt 
or  decay.  And  Thomas  Munson  and  the  rest  of  the  sergeants 
undertook  to  have  it  done  without  delay:  and  Mr.  Pearce  was 
appointed  to  give  out  and  lay  up  the  pikes  from  time  to  time,  that 
they  receive  no  damage  betwixt  times  of  ser\'ice ;  and  in  considera- 
tion hereof  and  of  some  bodily  weakness,  he  is  at  present  freed 
from  training,  and  allowed  to  provide  a  man  to  watch  for  him.'* 

In  respect  to  defensive  armor,  the  following  order 
gives  information :  "  It  is  ordered  that  when  canvas 
and  cotton-wool  may  conveniently  be  had,  due  notice 
and  warning  shall  be  given ;  and  then  every  family 
within  the  plantation  shall  accordingly  provide  and 
after  continue  furnished  with  a  coat  well  made,  and 
so  quilted  with  cotton-wool  as  may  be  fit  for  ser\'ice, 
and  a  comfortable  defence  against  Indian  arrows ;  and 
the  tailors  about  the  town  shall  consider  and  advise 
how  to  make  them,  and  take  care  that  they  be  done 
without  unnecessary  delay." 

Capt.  Turner  was  by  virtue  of  his  office  chief  cap- 
tain of  the  watch,  appointing  the  watch-masters  and 
designating  the  watchmen  to  be  subject  to  each,  though 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  299 

not  without  the  approval  of  the  magistrates.  "It  is 
ordered  that  a  constant  and  strict  watch  shall  be  kept 
every  night  in  this  plantation  from  the  first  of  March 
to  the  last  of  October  every  year  ordinarily,  leaving 
extraordinary  cases,  either  of  mildness  or  of  sharpness 
of  weather  or  times  of  danger,  to  the  governor  and 
magistrates,  who  may  remit  or  continue  the  watch 
longer,  or  increase  and  order  them  as  seasons  and  occa- 
sions may  require.  But  in  the  ordinary  course  the 
watch  is  every  night  to  consist  of  one  intrusted  as 
master  of  the  watch  (who  is  diligently  to  attend  and 
obsen^e  all  the  orders  made  by  this  court  for  the  watch 
while  they  remain  in  force),  and  of  six  other  watchmen. 
This  watch-master  is  to  be  appointed  yearly,  and  the  six 
watchmen  to  be  sorted,  as  may  be  most  convenient  in 
respect  of  their  dwellings,  by  the  captain,  with  approba- 
tion of  the  magistrates.  But  if  by  death,  -remove,  or 
any  other  occasion,  after  the  watches  are  settled  in 
their  course  for  the  year,  a  breach  be  made,  and  so 
cause  of  an  alteration,  the  captain  shall  with  all  con- 
venient speed  order  and  settle  them  again,  so  as  may 
be  most  convenient  for  the  town,  and  shall  give  sea- 
sonable warning  to  all  the  watch-masters  whom  it  con- 
cerneth,  that  the  service  may  go  on  without  interruption 
or  disorder." 

What  the  orders  for  the  watch  were,  may  be  learned 
from  the  following  record :  "  At  a  court  holden  the 
3d  of  June,  1640,  all  the  masters  of  the  watches  received 
their  charge  and  orders  as  followeth  :  — 

"  I.  The  drummer  is  to  beat  the  drum  at  the  going  down  of 
the  sun. 

"2.  The  master  of  the  watch  is  to  be  at  the  court  of  gtiard 


3CX>  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

within  half  an  hour  after  the  setting  of  the  sun,  with  his'  arms 
complete. 

"3.  All  the  watchmen  are  to  be  there  within  an  hour  after 
the  setting  of  the  sun,  with  their  arms  complete  and  their  guns 
ready  charged ;  and  if  any  of  them  come  after  the  time  appointed, 
or  be  defective  in  their  arms,  they  are  to  pay  one  shilling  fine  ;  for 
total  absence  five  shillings  fine.  And  if  the  master  of  the  watch 
transgress,  either  in  late  coming,  defectiveness  in  arms,  or  total 
absence,  his  fine  is  to  be  double  to  the  watchmen's  fine  in  like 
case. 

'"  4.  The  master  of  the  watch  is  to  set  the  watch  an  hour  after 
sunset,  dividing  the  night  into  three  watches,  sending  forth  two 
and  two  together  to  walk  their  turns,  as  well  without  the  town  as 
within  the  town  and  the  suburbs  also,  and  to  bring  to  the  court  of 
guard  any  person  or  persons  whom  they  shall  find  disorderly  or  in 
a  suspicious  manner  within  doors  or  ^vithout,  whether  English  or 
Indians,  or  any  other  strangers  whatsoever,  and  keep  them  there 
safe  until  the  morning,  and  then  bring  them  before  one  of  the 
magistrates.  If  the  watchmen  in  any  part  of  their  watch  see  any 
apparent  common  danger  which  they  cannot  otherwise  prevent  or 
stop,  then  they  are  to  make  an  alarm  by  discharging  their  two 
guns,  which  are  to  be  answered  by  him  that  stands  at  the  door  to 
keep  sentinel,  and  that  also  seconded  by  beating  of  the  drum. 
And  if  the  danger  be  by  fire,  then  with  the  alarm  the  watchmen 
are  to  oxyfire^fire.  And  if  it  be  by  the  discover}-  of  an  enemy, 
then  they  are  to  cry  arm^  arm,  all  the  town  over,  yet  so  as  to  leave 
a  guard  at  the  court  of  guard. 

"  5.  The  master  is  to  take  care  that  one  man  alwavs  stand  sen- 
tinel  in  a  sentinel  posture  without  the  watch-house,  to  hearken  dili- 
gently after  the  watchmen,  and  see  that  no  man  come  near  the 
watch-house  or  court  of  guard ;  no,  not  those  of  the  present  watch 
who  have  been  walking  the  round,  but  that  he  require  them  to 
stand,  and  call  forth  the  master  of  the  watch  to  question,  proceed, 
or  receive  them,  as  he  shall  see  cause.  The  master  of  the  watch 
is  also  to  see  that  none  of  the  watchmen  sleep  at  all,  and  that  none 
of  their  guns  remain  uncharged  till  the  watch  break  up  (and  then 
they  may  discharge),  and  also  that  no  man  lay  aside  his  arms  while 
the  watch  continues. 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS,  3OI 

"  6.  Every  master  of  the  watch  in  his  course  is  to  warn  both  his 
own  watch  and  the  master  of  the  succeeding  watch,  four  and  twenty 
hours  before  they  are  to  watch,  and  not  to  do  it  slightly,  but  either 
to  do  it  themselves  or  to  leave  the  warning  with  some  sufficient 
for  such  a  trust. 

''^Lastly,  If  any  master  of  the  watch  shall  fail  either  in  the 
warning  or  ordering  of  the  watch  in  any  of  the  forenamed  particu- 
lars, or  shall  break  up  the  watch  in  the  morning  before  it  have 
been  full  half  an  hour  daylight,  or  neglect  to  complain  to  one 
of  the  magistrates  of  the  neglects  or  defects  of  any  of  the  watch- 
men, he  is  to  be  fined  by  the  court  according  to  the  quality  of  his 
offence." 

In  1645  "it  is  ordered  that  the  market-place  be  forth- 
with cleared,  and  the  wood  carried  to  the  watch-house, 
and  there  piled  for  the  use  and  succor  of  the  watch  in 
cold  weather,  and  the  care  of  this  business  is  committed 
to  the  four  sergeants."  From  a  record  four  years  later 
it  appears  that  this  work  of  clearing  the  market-place 
was  to  be  performed  by  the  inhabitants,  each  working 
in  his  turn  either  personally  or  by  proxy;  that  some 
trees  were  then  still  standing;  and  that  some  of  the 
inhabitants  had  not  yet  done  their  share  of  the  labor. 
Probably  a  wood-pile  had  been  provided  sufficient  for 
"the  use  and  succor  '*  of  the  watch  for  four  years  ;  after 
the  lapse  of  which  time  "it  was  propounded  that  some 
wood  might  be  provided  for  the  watch.  The  sergeants 
were  desired  to  inquire  who  hath  not  wrought  in  the 
market-place,  that  they  might  cut  some  wood  out,  and 
in  the  meantime  the  treasurer  was  to  provide  a  load." 

"In  1647  it  was  propounded  that  men  would  clear 
wood  and  stones  from  their  pale  sides,  that  the  watch- 
men in  dark  nights  might  the  more  safely  walk  the 
rounds  without  hurt  thereby." 


302  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

On  sabbath  and  lecture  days  and  other  days  ordinary 
and  extraordinary,  of  solemn  worship,  the  watch  was 
kept  as  at  night. 

"  Tl)e  sentinels  and  they  that  walk  the  round  in  their  course, 
shall  diligently  attend  their  trust  and  duty,  and  shall  have  their 
matches  lighted  during  the  time  of  meeting,  if  they  serve  with 
matchlock  pieces." 

At  first  all  who  belonged  to  the  watch,  that  is  to  say 
all  persons  subject  to  military  ser\^ice,  were  required  to 
come  every  Lord's  day  to  the  meeting  completely  armed ; 
and  all  other  adult  males  were  required  to  bring  their 
swords,  "  no  man  exempted  save  Mr.  Eaton,  our  pastor, 
Mr.  James,  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  and  the  two  deacons." 
Afterward,  when  the  military  company  had  been  divided 
into  four  squadrons,  it  was  ordered  that  one  squadron 
in  its  course  should  come  to  public  worship  with  arms 
complete,  and  "be  at  the  meeting-house  before  the 
second  drum  hath  left  beating,  their  guns  ready  charged 
with  a  fit  proportion  of  match  for  matchlocks,  and  flints 
ready  fitted  in  their  firelock  pieces,  and  shot  and  powder 
for  five  or  six  charges  at  least."  Such  an  order  must 
have  secured  for  each  service  of  public  worship  a  guard 
of  fifty  full-armed  men,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  more 
equipped  with  swords.  However,  one  of  the  rules  of 
the  artillery  company  requiring  that  "  every  one  of  this 
company  purposely  coming  to  any  general  or  particular 
court,  or  to  the  ordinances  at  any  public  meeting, 
whether  on  the  Lord's  days,  lecture  days,  days  of 
solemn  fasting  or  thanksgiving,  shall  carry  and  wear  his 
sword  by  his  side,"  affords  ground  for  an  inference  that 
the  order  requiring  the  whole  adult  male  population  to 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS,  303 

wear  their  swords,  had  in  1645  been  repealed  or  become 
inoperative. 

The  other  plantations  conducted  their  military  affairs 
in  a  manner  similar  to  that  of  New  Haven.  Indeed, 
the  colony  laws  concerning  military  affairs  so  closely 
resemble  those  of  the  principal  plantation  as  to  suggest 
a  common  origin.  They  specify  the  arms  with  which 
every  male  within  the  jurisdiction  shall  be  equipped ; 
require  that  "  every  captain  or  chief  officer  chosen  in 
any  of  the  plantations,  for  the  military  affairs,  shall 
from  time  to  time  be  propounded  to  the  next  general 
court  after  he  is  chosen,  for  approbation  and  confirma- 
tion ;"  enjoin  inspection  of  arms  "once  in  each  quarter 
of  a  year  at  least,  but  oftener  if  there  be  cause  ;  "  pro- 
vide that  **  there  shall  be  every  year  at  least  six  training 
days  ;"  order  that  "a  fourth  part  of  the  trained  band  in 
every  plantation  shall  in  their  course  come  constantly  to 
the  worship  of  God  every  Lord's  day,  and  (such  as  can 
come)  on  lecture  days ;  to  be  at  the  meeting-house  at 
latest  before  the  second  drum  hath  left  beating,  with 
their  arms  complete,  their  guns  ready  charged,  their 
match  for  their  matchlocks  and  flints  ready  fitted  to 
their  firelock  guns,  with  shot  and  powder  for  at  least 
five  shots  besides  the  charge  in  their  guns  ; "  and  "  that 
a  strict  watch  be  kept  in  the  night  in  all  the  plantations 
within  this  jurisdiction.'*  Exemption  from  military 
duty  is  defined  as  follows  ;  viz. :  "  Upon  consideration  of 
public  service  and  other  due  respects,  it  is  ordered  that 
all  magistrates  within  this  jurisdiction,  and  teaching 
elders,  shall  at  all  times  hereafter  be  freed,  not  only  in 
their  persons,  but  each  of  them  shall  have  one  son  or 
ser\'ant,  by  virtue  of  his  place  or  office,  freed  from  all 


304  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

watching,  warding,  and  training.  And  it  is  further 
ordered  that  all  elders,  deputies  for  courts  intrusted  for 
judicature,  all  the  chief  military  officers  (as  captains, 
lieutenants,  and  ensigns),  the  jurisdiction  treasurer, 
deacons,  and  all  physicians,  school-masters,  and  surgeons, 
allowed  by  authority  in  any  of  these  plantations,  all 
masters  of  ships  and  other  vessels  above  fifteen  tons, 
all  public  millers  constantly  employed,  with  others  for 
the  present  discharged  for  personal  weakness  and 
infirmity,  shall,  in  their  own  persons,  in  time  of  peace 
and  safety,  be  freed  from  the  said  services.  And  that 
all  other  seamen  and  ship-carpenters,  and  such  as  hold 
farms  above  two  miles  from  any  of  the  plantations, 
train  only  twice  a  year  at  such  times  as  shall  be  ordered 
either  by  the  authority  or  by  the  military  officers  of  the 
plantation.  But  all  persons  freed  and  exempted  from 
the  respective  services  as  before,  shall  yet  in  all  respects 
provide,  keep,  and  maintain  in  a  constant  readiness, 
complete  arms,  and  all  other  military  provisions  as  other 
men  ;  magistrates,  and  teaching  elders  excepted,  who  yet 
shall  be  constantly  furnished  for  all  such  sons  and  ser- 
vants as  are  hereby  freed  from  the  forementioned  ser- 

•       »» 
vices. 

The  artillery  company  at  New  Haven  seems  in  later 
years  to  have  become  so  far  a  colonial  company  that 
"  Mr.  Chittenden  of  Guilford  "  was  one  of  -its  sergeants. 
A  company  of  troopers  was  organized  in  1656.  "It  is 
ordered  that  sixteen  horses  shall  be  provided  and  kept 
in  the  five  towns  upon  the  main,  in  this  jurisdiction, 
with  suitable  saddles,  bridles,  pistols,  and  other  furni- 
ture that  is  necessary  toward  the  raising  of  a  small 
troop  for  the  service  of  the  country,  in  an  equal  pro- 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  305 

portion  as  they  can  be  divided,  according  to  the  estate 
of  each  plantation,  which  is  as  followeth :  Six  from 
New  Haven,  four  from  Milford,  two  from  Stamford,  and 
four  from  Guilford  and  Branford,  and  that  the  persons 
who  shall  freely  undertake  or  be  appointed  thereunto, 
shall  be  free  from  rates,  both  for  their  persons  and  the 
said  horses,  also  from  training  with  the  foot  company, 
and  from  any  press  for  themselves  and  horses  to  other 
public  service,  and  shall  have  what  other  privileges  are 
granted  to  troopers  in  the  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut 
colonies,  provided  that  such  men  who  shall  be  appointed 
to  this  service  shall  be  diligent  in  the  use  of  all  due 
means  to  fit  themselves  and  horses  for  the  same  at 
home  in  their  several  plantations,  after  which  this 
Court  will  consider  how  they  may  be  improved  in  a 
public  way  of  training." 

At  the  same  court  it  was  "ordered,  that,  for  the 
encouragement  of  soldiers  in  their  military  exercise, 
every  plantation  shall  provide  a  partisan  for  their  lieu- 
tenant, colors  for  their  ensign,  halberds  for  their  ser- 
geants, with  drums  fit  for  service,  with  a  certain  number 
of  pikes,  as  hereafter  expressed.  New  Haven  being, 
furnished,  Milford  is  to  have  sixteen  pikes,  Stamford 
sixteen,  Guilford  twelve,  Southold  and  Branford  eight 
apiece ;  and,  further,  that  half  a  pound  of  powder  for 
every  soldier  be  allowed  by  every  town  out  of  their 
town  rate,  once  in  a  year,  to  the  chief  officer,  to  be 
by  him  bestowed  upon  them,  according  to  their  due 
deserts,  to  be  spent  as  he  shall  order,  by  shooting  at  a 
mark  three  times  in  a  year,  for  some  small  prize  which 
each  town  shall  provide,  in  value  not  above  five  shillings 
a  time,  and  not  less  than  two  shillings  sixpence,  which 


306  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

shall  be  ordered  either  to  one  or  more,  as  the  officer 
shall  appoint ;  and  that  each  town  provide  a  good  pair 
of  hilts  for  soldiers  to  play  at  cudgels  with  ;  and  that 
they  exercise  themselves  in  playing  at  backsword,  &c. ; 
that  they  learn  how  to  handle  their  weapons  for  the 
defence  of  themselves  and  offence  of  their  enemies ; 
and  that  the  deputies  of  each  plantation  speak  to  the 
teaching  elders  there  to  take  some  fit  opportunity  to 
speak  to  the  soldiers  something  by  way  of  exhortation 
to  quicken  them  to  a  conscientious  attendance  to  this 
duty ;  and  that  soldiers  in  time  of  their  vacancy  do 
exercise  themselves  in  running,  wrestling,  leaping,  and 
the  like  manly  exercises,  the  better  to  fit  their  bodies 
for  service  and  hardship ;  and  that  all  other  exercises, 
as  stool-ball,  ninepins,  quoits,  and  such  like  games,  be 
forbidden,  and  not  to  be  used  till  the  military  exercise 
of  the  day  be  finished,  and  the  company  dismissed  from 
that  service." 

The  colony  of  New  Haven,  though  always  prepared 
for  war,  had  no  opportunity  for  great  or  brilliant 
achievements.  The  Indians  in  their  immediate  neigh- 
borhood were  peaceable  and  friendly  ;  and  though  tribes 
more  remote  sometimes  threatened  hostilities  against 
the  whole  European  population  of  New  England,  and 
though  war  with  the  Dutch  was  at  one  time  imminent, 
yet  the  period  of  which  our  history  treats,  exhibits  no 
battles  like  those  of  the  Pequot  war  immediately  pre- 
ceding it,  or  of  the  wars  subsequent  to  the  union  with 
Connecticut. 

There  was  no  disturbance  at  all  during  the  first  five 
years.     The  union  of  the  towns  into  a  colony,  and  of 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  307 

the  four  colonies  into  a  confederation,  was  hastened  by 
portents  of  a  general  war  with  the  Indians.  The  same 
year  in  which  the  union  was  consummated,  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  United  Colonics,  feeling  that  they  were 
under  obligation  to  defend  Uncas,  the  sachem  of  the 
Mohegans,  and  the  ally  of  the  English,  from  the  ven- 
geance of  the  Narragansets,  requested  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven  to  undertake  this  service.  Accordingly  six. 
soldiers  were  sent  from  New  Haven  to  Norwich  in  a 
shallop,  "to  join  with  eight  from  Hartford  for  Uncas's 
defence  against  the  assaults  which  may  be  made  upon 
him  by  the  Narraganset  Indians."  This  squad  of  sol- 
diers remained  with  Uncas  till  messengers  from  the 
commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  hiad  for  the 
moment  dissuaded  the  Narragansets  from  their  hostile 
purposes  against  the  Mohegans.  Two  years  later,  the 
Narragansets,  having  in  violation  of  their  promise 
resumed  hostilities,  assistance  was  again  sent  to  Uncas 
from  New  Haven  and  from  Connecticut.  •  These  auxil- 
iaries remained  with  him  several  months.  A  special 
meeting  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
being  meanwhile  called,  they  determined  that  an  imme- 
diate war  with  the  Narragansets  was  both  justifiable 
and  necessary.  New  Haven  was  required  to  send  thirty 
of  the  three  hundred  soldiers  composing  the  army  of 
invasion.  In  three  days  after  the  declaration  of  war,  a 
company  of  forty  men  ready  to  march  was  raised  in 
Massachusetts,  as  the  first  fruits  of  her  quota  of  one 
hundred  and  ninety  men.  The  arrival  at  Mohegan  of 
this  advanced  company,  relieved  the  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven  men  so  long  absent  from  their  homes  on 
garrison  duty ;  and  the  spirited  preparations  made  by 


308  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

the  English  induced  the  Narragansets  to  sign  articles 
of  peace,  which  made  it  unnecessary  for  New  Haven  to 
send  her  quota  to  the  war.  From  time  to  time  the  Nar- 
ragansets broke  and  renewed  their  promises,  till,  in  King 
Philip's  war,  which  occurred  after  the  union  of  New 
Haven  with  Connecticut,  they  were  driven  from  their 
territory,  never  to  repossess  it. 

Simultaneously  with  the  first  of  the  expeditions  to 
Mohegan,  there  was  danger  in  the  west  as  well  as  in  the 
east ;  the  Dutch  being  involved  in  an  Indian  war,  and 
the  Indians  being  not  careful  to  distinguish  between 
Dutch  and  English.  The  same  month  in  which  the 
shallop  was  sent  to  Norwich,  the  Dutch  governor  pro- 
posed that  one  hundred  soldiers  should  be  raised  out  of 
the  English  plantations,  and  led  by  Capt.  Underbill '  of 
Stamford,  to  assist  the  Dutch  against  the  Indians,  prom- 
ising to  pay  the  whole  expense  "  by  bills  of  exchange 

*  Capt.  John  Underbill,  formerly  of  Boston.  After,  if  not  in  conse- 
quence of,  the  preaching  of  antinomianism  at  Boston,  he  fell  into  the  vilest 
immorality,  and  found  it  expedient  to  change  his  residence.  Removing 
first  to  Piscataqua,  he  came  afterward  to  Stamford.  There  he  was  well 
received  on  account  of  his  professional  ability,  the  town  agreeing  to  pay 
him  a  salary  as  their  captain;  and  the  jurisdiction,  upon  his  application  for 
a  loan  of  £20  to  supply  his  present  occasions,  ordering  that  if  the  lending 
of  this  ;£'20  may  be  a  means  to  settle  the  captain,  and  if  they  conceive  his 
settlement  may  tend  to  their  comfort  and  security,  and  if  the  town  of 
Stamford  will  see  the  said  sum  duly  repaid,  the  jurisdiction  is  willing  to 
lend  the  said  sum  to  prevent  the  snares  of  larger  offers  for  his  remove." 
Ver\*  soon,  however,  after  this  endeavor  to  retain  him  in  the  colonv  of 
New  Haven,  Underhill  was  secured  by  the  Dutch,  and  intrusted  with  the 
chief  command  in  the  war  they  were  waging  with  the  Indians.  After  some 
good  service  rendered  on  Long  Island,  he  led  a  force  of  one  hundred  and 
thirt}'  men  to  Greenwich,  surprised  an  Indian  village  in  the  night,  and,  by  a 
terrific  slaughter,  almost  equalling  in  the  number  of  the  slain  that  in 
which  he  had  been  a  principal  actor  at  Mystic  fort,  persuaded  the  natives 
to  terminate  a  conflict  in  which  they  were  so  inferior  to  their  foes. 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS,  309 

into  Holland."  Stamford,  being  nearest  to  the  scene  of 
danger,  was  disposed  to  join  with  the  Dutch  in  chastising 
the  merciless  savages.  But  the  General  Court,  "not 
clearly  understanding  the  rise  and  cause  of  the  war,  and 
remembering  that  they  could  not  make  war  without  the 
consent  of  the  other  confederate  colonies,  did  not  see 
how  they  might  afford  the  aid  propounded  without  a 
meeting  and  consent  of  the  commissioners  for  the  rest 
of  the  jurisdictions.  But  if  peace  be  not  settled  this 
winter,  so  soon  as  the  commissioners  may  meet  in  the 
spring,  both  the  ground  of  the  war  and  the  aid  or 
assistance  desired  may  be  taken  into  due  consideration  ; 
and  if  in  the  mean  time  there  be  want  of  corn  for  men 
and  food  for  cattle,  in  supply  of  what  the  Indians  have 
destroyed,  these  plantations  will  afford  what  help  they 
may." 

We  hear  nothing  more  of  the  proposal  that  the  Eng- 
lish should  join  with  the  Dutch  to  chastise  the  Indians. 
On  the  contrary,  we  find  the  Dutch,  a  few  years  after- 
ward, when  their  own  troubles  had  come  to  an  end, 
charged  with  selling  fire-arms  to  the  Indians,  and 
inciting  them  to  hostilities  against  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven,  between  which  colonies  and  the  Dutch 
there  were  some  matters  in  dispute.  This  quarrel  was 
still  further  inflamed  when  news  came  of  war  between 
Holland  and  England,  so  that  in  the  spring  of  1653 
the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  by  a  vote 
of  seven  to  one,  declared  war  against  the  colony  of 
New  Netherlands,  having,  as  the  majority  believed, 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  Dutch  governor  had  plotted 
with  the  Indians  for  the  destruction  of  the  English. 
In  the  autumn,  by  a  similar  vote  of  seven  to  one,  they 


310  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

declared  war  against  Ninigret,  sachem  of  the  Niantics. 
But  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  nullifying  the 
action  of  the  commissioners,  on  the  ground  that  the 
evidence  of  a  plot  was  insufficient,  refused  to  contribute 
her  quota  of  troops.  The  General  Court  of  New  Haven 
jurisdiction,  declaring  that  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  and  Council  "  have  broken  their  covenant  with  us 
in  acting  directly  contrary  to  the  articles  of  confedera- 
tion," saw  themselves  "called  to  seek  for  help  else- 
where," and  could  "  conclude  of  no  better  way  than  to 
make  their  addresses  to  the  State  of  England."  Con- 
necticut joined  with  them,  and  the  appeal  was  success- 
ful. Cromwell,  listening  to  their  declaration,  that, 
"unless  the  Dutch  be  either  removed  or  subjected,  so 
far  at  least  that  these  colonies  may  be  freed  from  inju- 
rious affronts,  and  secured  against  the  dangers  and  mis- 
chievous effects  which  daily  grow  upon  them  by  their 
plotting  with  the  Indians,  and  furnishing  them  with 
arms  against  the  English,  and  that  the  league  and  con- 
federation betwixt  the  four  united  English  colonies  be 
confirmed  and  settled  according  to  the  true  sense 
(and,  till  this  year,  the  continued  interpretation)  of  the 
articles,  the  peace  and  comfort  of  these  smaller  western 
colonies  will  be  much  hazarded,"  sent  a  fleet  to  sub- 
jugate New  Netherlands. 

The  plan,  as  formed  after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  at 
Boston,  was,  to  raise  an  army  to  co-operate  with  the 
ships,  to  consist  of  two  hundred  from  Massachusetts, 
two  hundred  from  the  ships,  two  hundred  from  Con- 
necticut, "and  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  from  this 
colony,  which  the  Court  must  now  agree  to  raise  in 
equal    proportion,   which   was   done    as   follows ;  viz.  • 


MILITAR  Y  AFFAIRS,  3 1 1 

From  New  Haven,  fifty ;  from  Milford,  twenty-one ; 
from  Guilford,  seventeen ;  from  Stamford,  twenty ; 
from  Southold,  fourteen  ;  from  Branford,  eleven  ;  New 
Haven  and  Milford  having  one  or  two  less  in  propor- 
tion than  the  rest,  because  of  seamen  that  are  to  go 
from  thence,  which,  if  not  provided  for,  will  put  them 
above  their  proportion.  Of  which  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three,  these  officers  were  chosen :  Lieut.  Seeley, 
captain  ;  Lieut.  Nash,  lieutenant ;  Richard  Baldwin,  of 
Milford,  ensign;  Sergt.  Munson,.  Sergt.  Whitehead, 
Sergt.  Tibballs,  of  Milford,  and  Sergt.  Bartlett,  of  Guil- 
ford, sergeants ;  Robert  Basset,  chief  drummer,  and 
Anthony  Elcott  to  be  under  him ;  Mr.  Augur,  and 
John  Brockett,  surgeons ;  and  Mr.  Pierson  is  chosen 
and  appointed  to  go  along  with  this  company  as  their 
minister,  for  their  encouragement,  spiritual  instruction, 
and  comfort ;  and  the  corporals  are,  Corp.  Boykin,  John 
Cooper,  Henry  Botsford  of  Milford,  and  Thomas  Stevens 
of  Guilford ;  but  this  last  is  only  for  this  present  ser- 
vice, and  that  he  proceed  no  higher  in  any  other  office, 
because  he  is  not  a  freeman,  and  that  the  chief  military 
officer  be  acquainted  with  it.*' 

The  caveat  of  the  Court,  in  respect  to  Corp.  Stevens, 
illustrates  the  care  taken  by  the  New  Haven  Colony  to 
commit  military  authority  to  none  but  church-members. 
For  some  reason,  —  perhaps  for  the  reason  that  no 
church-member  could  be  found  who  would  willingly  go, 
—  an  exception  to  the  rule  was  allowed  in  this  instance  ; 
but  Corp.  Stevens  was  made  to  understand  that  he  could 
rise  to  no  higher  office,  and  that  his  rank  would  cease 
when  the  expedition  returned. 


312  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"  The  Court,  considering  the  great  weight  of  this  business,  and 
that  all  good  success  depends  upon  God's  blessing,  did  therefore 
order  that  the  fourth  day  of  the  next  week  shall  be  set  apart  by 
all  the  plantations  of  this  jurisdiction,  to  seek  God  in  an  extra- 
ordinary way,  in  fristing  and  prayer,  for  a  blessing  upon  the  enter- 
prise abroad,  and  for  the  safety  of  the  plantations  at  home. 

"The  Court  considered  of  what  provisions  were  necessary  to 
send  forth  with  these  men  for  a  month,  and  agreed  upon  six 
tuns  of  beer,  six  thousand  biscuits,  nine  barrels  of  pork,  six  barrels 
of  beef,  four  hogsheads  of  pease,  three  hogsheads  of  flour,  six 
firkins  of  butter,  five  hundred  (pounds)  of  cheese,  three  anchors  of 
liquor,  trays,  dishes  or  cans,  pails,  kettles ;  and  that  ever)'  man 
have  a  good  firelock  musket,  with  other  arms  suitable ;  a  knapsack, 
with  one  pound  of  powder,  and  twenty-four  musket  bullets,  or  four 
pounds  of  ]iistol  shot :  and,  for  a  stock  beside,  in  the  whole,  two 
barrels  of  powder,  three  hundred  weight  of  musket  bullets,  and  one 
hundred  weight  of  pistol  shot,  with  twenty  spades  and  shovels, 
ten  axes,  and  ten  mattocks.*' 

"  It  is  ordered  that  the  charges  of  soldiers,  horse  or  foot,  wher- 
ever provided  for,  shall  be  at  the  jurisdiction's  charge  in  equal 
proportion." 

"It  is  ordered  that  the  magistrates  and  deputies  at  New  Haven 
shall  be  a  committee  to  order  matters  which  concern  this  design, 
but  cannot  now  be  foreseen,  as  occasions  present,  and  what  they 
do  is  to  stand  good  as  if  the  Court  did  it." 

**  It  is  ordered  that  Johnson's  lighter  shall  be  pressed  to  attend 
the  service,  for  transporting  of  men  and  provisions  as  there  is 


occasion." 


"It  is  ordered  that  all  vessels  which  come  into  any  harbor  in 
this  jurisdiction,  which  may  be  fit  to  attend  this  service,  shall  be 
made  stay  of  for  the  same,  on  behalf  of  the  commonwealth  of  Eng- 
land, till  further  order." 

"It  is  ordered  that  as  soon  as  the  army  is  past,  watching  and 
warding  shall  begin  in  an  extraordinary  way,  as  may  suit  with 
ever)-  town's  conveniency  and  safety,  and  then  all  Indians  are  to 
be  restrained  from  coming  into  any  of  our  plantations  without 
leave." 


MILITARY  AFFAIRS.  313 

These  preparations  for  war  were  ordered  on  the  23d 
of  June,  the  governor  having  on  that  day  "acquainted 
the  Court  with  some  letters  he  had  received  from 
Mr.  Leete  from  Boston,  informing  that  the  design 
against  the  Dutch  is  like  to  go  on."  But  the  design 
did  not  go  on,  for  in  a  few  days  came  news  of  peace 
concluded  between  England  and  Holland.  At  the  next 
session  held  July  5,  "the  governor  informed  the  Court 
that  there  were  with  him  this  day  since  dinner  two  men, 
sent  as  messengers  from  the  Dutch  governor,  to  inquire 
of  the  truth  of  the  peace  which  they  hear  by  report  is 
concluded  betwixt  England  and  Holland,  who  desired 
that  two  or  three  lines  might  be  sent  to  certify  the 
same ;  which  the  Court  desired  the  governor  to  do,  and 
ordered  that  a  copy  of  the  proclamation  should  be  sent 
also ;  both  which  were  presently  done,  and  the  messen- 
gers dismissed.*' 

New  Haven  being  thus  restrained  from  executing 
her  design  against  the  Dutch,  turned  her  attention  to 
Ninigret,  who,  emboldened  by  the  nullifying  attitude 
of  Massachusetts,  was  preparing  to  destroy  the  IndiaiV* 
tribes  friendly  to  the  English.  In  August  she  de- 
spatched Lieut.  Seeley,  Connecticut  sending  also  Capt. 
Mason,  to  carry  a  present  of  powder  and  lead  to  the 
Montauk  Indians,  on  Long  Island,  and  explain  that 
with  it  they  were  "not  to  offend  or  hurt  Ninigret  or 
any  other  Indians,  but  to  defend  themselves  if  they 
are  invaded."  At  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners 
in  September,  Massachusetts  consented,  though,  as  the 
result  showed,  not  very  heartily,  to  active  hostilities 
against  Ninigret.  It  was  determined  to  raise  an  army 
of  forty  horsemen  and  two  hundred  and  sixty  footmen, 


314  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

the  quota  of  New  Haven  being  thirty-one.  Sixteen 
of  these  were  immediately  sent,  with  two  seamen  to 
carry  them  and  their  provisions  by  water,  eight  from 
New  Haven,  three  from  Milford,  three  from  Stamford, 
two  from  Guilford,  and  two  from  Branford. 

The  Court  also  "  agreed  of  provisions  to  be  sent  for 
a  month  as  followeth  :  Six  barrels  of  beer,  five  hundred 
pounds  of  bread,  one  barrel  of  beef,  one  barrel  of  pork, 
one  hundred  pounds  of  cheese,  one  barrel  of  pease,  and 
three  gallons  of  strong  water ;  with  every  man  two 
pounds  of  powder  and  shot  answerable,  for  a  stock ; 
besides  one  pound  of  powder  and  shot  answerable,  which 
every  man  is  to  carry  with  him  ;  with  some  coats,  every 
man  his  knapsack  and  musket,  and  other  fit  arms  for 
the  ser\'ice ;  six  trays,  six  dishes,  and  one  kettle ;  and 
for  the  chief  officer  for  this  colony  in  this  sendee,  the 
Court  chose  Lieut.  Seeley,  and  Sergt.  Jeffrey  for  ser- 
geant ;  and  the  other  fifteen  men  are  to  be  forthwith 
pressed,  that  they  may  be  in  readiness  to  attend  further 
service  if  they  be  called  to  it." 

The  1 3th  of  October  being  the  time  agreed  upon  for 
the  meeting  of  the  troops  from  the  different  colonies 
at  the  place  of  rendezvous,  it  was  "  ordered  that  upon 
the  twelfth  day  of  this  month,  being  the  fifth  day  of 
the  week,  shall  be  a  day  of  humiliation  to  seek  God  for 
a  blessing  upon  this  enterprise  in  hand." 

Contrary  to  the  wishes  of  New  Haven  and  of  Con- 
necticut, no  fighting  was  done  by  the  troops  thus  sent 
against  the  sachem  of  the  Niantics.  Willard,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, receiving  his  appointment  from  Massa- 
chusetts, seems  to  have  been  as  reluctant  to  engage  in 
hostilities  as  the  power  which   appointed   him.     The 


MIL  I  TAR  Y  AFFAIRS.  3 1  $ 

commissioners,  at  their  next  meeting  nearly  a  year 
afterward,  censured  him  for  his  inactivity,  and  referred 
the  matter  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several  colo- 
nies. New  Haven,  in  response,  expressed  the  opinion 
that  he  had  not  obeyed  his  instructions,  but  declined 
to  propose  any  penalty  till  the  other  colonics  had  acted. 
They  were  powerless  to  punish  a  citizen  of  Massachu- 
setts whose  conduct  Massachusetts  approved,  even  if 
she  had  not,  as  Trumbull  charges,  predetermined  it. 

The  failure  of  the  expedition  against  the  Niantics 
made  it  necessary  to  employ  an  armed  vessel  to  cruise 
in  the  Sound,  "  to  hinder  Ninigret  from  going  against 
the  Long  Island  Indians."  The  vessel  was  commanded 
by  John  Youngs,  son  of  the  pastor  at  Southold  (a  plan- 
tation belonging  to  New  Haven),  and  four  men  were 
sent  with  him  by  vote  of  the  jurisdiction.  This  service 
continued  about  a  year,  and  seems  to  have  effectually 
prevented  the  hostile  incursions  of  Ninigret  into  Long 
Island. 

With  this  exception,  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
military  service  required  by  the  New  Haven  colony 
from  the  time  of  the  Niantic  expedition  to  the  union 
with  Connecticut,  other  than  the  regular  trainings  in 
each  plantation ;  though  for  several  years  immediately 
subsequent  to  that  expedition,  wars  between  Indian 
tribes  excited  frequent  alarms  among  the  Engjish,  and 
stimulated  them  to  unusual  diligence  in  military  exer- 
cise. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE   ABORIGINES. 

THE  small  tribes  of  Indians  which  originally  pos- 
sessed the  territory  of  the  New  Haven  colony  had 
lived  in  fear  of  the  Pequots  and  the  Mohawks.  De- 
livered from  fear  of  their  eastern  enemies  by  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  Pequot  tribe,  they  gladly  received  the  Eng- 
lish planters,  hoping  that  the  people,  by  whose  wonder- 
ful prowess  this  deliverance  had  been  effected,  would 
protfcct  them  from  their  enemies  in  the  west. 

"The  Mohawks,"  says  Trumbull,  "had  not  only 
carried  their  conquests  as  far  southward  as  Virginia,  but 
eastward  as  far  as  Connecticut  River.  The  Indians, 
therefore,  in  the  western  parts  of  Connecticut,  were 
their  tributaries.  Two  old  Mohawks,  ever)'  year  or  two, 
might  be  seen  issuing  their  orders  and  collecting  their 
tribute,  with  as  much  authority  and  haughtiness  as  a 
Roman  dictator. 

"It  is  indeed  difficult  to  describe  the   fear  of  this 

terrible  nation,  which  had  fallen  on  all  the  Indians  in 

the  western  parts  of  Connecticut.     If  they  neglected 

to  pay  their  tribute,  the  Mohawks  would  come  down 

against  them,  plunder,  destroy,  and  carry  them  captive 

at  pleasure.     When  they  made  their  appearance  in  the 

country,  the  Connecticut  Indians  would  instantly  raise 
316 


THE  ABORIGINES.  317 

a  cry  from  hill  to  hill,  '  A  Mohawk !  a  Mohawk ! '  and 
fly  like  sheep  before  wolves,  without  attempting  the 
least  resistance.  The  Mohawks  would  cry  out  in  the 
most  terrible  manner  in  their  language,  importing,  *  We 
are  come,  we  arc  come,  to  suck  your  blood  ! '  When  the 
Connecticut  Indians  could  not  escape  to  their  forts,  they 
would  immediately  flee  to  the  English  houses  for  shel- 
ter; and  sometimes  the  Mohawks  would  pursue  them 
so  closely  as  to  enter  with  them,  and  kill  them  in  the 
presence  of  the  family.  If  there  was  time  to  shut  the 
doors,  they  never  entered  by  force ;  nor  did  they  upon 
any  occasion  do  the  least  injury  to  the  English.** 

In  the  articles  of  agreement  in  which  Momaugin, 
sachem  of  Quinnipiac,  and  his  council,  conveyed  land  to 
Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Davenport,  and  others,  Eng- 
lish planters  at  Quinnipiac,  they  refer  to  **  heavy  taxes 
and  eminent  dangers  which  they  lately  felt  and  feared 
from  the  Pequots,  Mohawks,  and  other  Indians,  in 
regard  of  which  they  durst  not  stay  in  their  country, 
but  were  forced  to  fly  and  to  seek  shelter  under  the 
English  at  Connecticut ;  "  mention  "the  safety  and  ease 
that  other  Indians  enjoy  near  the  English,  of  which 
benefit  they  have  had  a  comfortable  taste  already  since 
the  English  began  to  build  and  plant  at  Quinnipiac ; " 
and  stipulate  "  that  if  at  any  time  hereafter  they  be 
affrighted  in  their  dwellings  assigned  by  the  English 
unto  them  as  before,  they  may  repair  to  the  English 
plantation  for  shelter,  and  that  the  English  will  there 
in  a  just  cause  endeavor  to  defend  them  from  wrong." 

The  Quinnipiacs  at  New  Haven  numbered  "forty- 
seven  men  or  youth  fit  for  service,"  and  covenanted 
"not  to  receive  or  admit  any  other  Indians  amongst 


3l8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

them  without  leave  first  had  and  obtained  from  the 
English."  Montowese,  whose  land  adjoined  that  of 
Momaugin  on  the  north,  reported  his  company  as  be- 
ing "  but  ten  men  besides  women  and  children." 
The  Indians  of  Guilford  were  of  the  same  tribe  as  the 
Quinnipiacs  of  New  Haven,  for  Shaumpishuh,  the 
squaw  sachem  at  Guilford,  was  sister  of  Momaugin, 
and  signed  with  him  the  deed  of  sale  to  Eaton  and 
Davenport.  After  she  sold  her  land  at  Guilford  to 
Whitfield  and  his  partners  in  the  purchase,  she  came 
to  reside  with  her  brother  at  East  Haven,"  bringing 
with  her  thirty-four  of  her  people ;  of  the  rest  a  few 
removed  to  Branford,  and  about  thirty-three  persons 
remained  at  Guilford.  Of  the  latter  company,  one  was 
blind,  and  another  was  "a  dumb  old  man." 

These  statistics  favor  the  opinion  that  the  territory 
of  the  New  Haven  colony,  when  the  English  began  to 
build  and  plant  upon  it,  was  but  sparsely  inhabited. 
Momaugin  had  about  one  square  mile  for  every  one  of 
his  people,  and  Montowese  had  thirteen  square  miles 
for  each  of  his  ten  men.  The  Wepowaugs  were  appar- 
ently more  numerous  than  the  Indians  at  New  Haven. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  this  tribe  was  so  powerful,  that 
the  English  settlement  at  Milford  was  fortified  with 
palisades.  Trumbull  speaks  in  terms  indefinite  indeed, 
but  fitted  to  convey  the  impression  that  Ansantaway, 
their  sachem,  had  some  hundreds  of  warriors ;  specify- 
ing five  different  settlements  in  the  town  of  Milford, 
and  making  mention  of  oyster-shells  "  so  deep  that  they 
never  have  been  ploughed  or  dug  through  to  this  day." 
De  Forest  thinks   that  Trumbull's   estimate   was   too 

*  De  Forest,  History  of  the  Indians  of  Connecticut,  p.  167. 


THE  ABORIGINES.  319 

high.  He  says,  "  The  territories  of  this  clan  stretched 
fifteen  or  eighteen  miles  along  the  coast,  and  compre- 
hended nearly  the  present  townships  of  Monroe,  Hunt- 
ington, Trumbull,  Bridgeport,  Stratford,  Milford,  Orange, 
and  Derby.  In  numbers  it  seems  to  have  been  consid- 
erable ;  and  large  heaps  of  shells  have  been  found  along 
the  coast,  showing  what  must  have  been  the  natives' 
favorite  and  principal  food.  These  heaps,  however,  do 
not  necessarily  prove  the  large  population  which  people 
often  suppose ;  for  they  were  probably  the  accumula- 
tions of  centuries,  and  their  foundations  may  have  been 
laid  by  some  race  which  came  and  disappeared  before 
the  foot  of  a  Paugussett  or  Wepowaug  ever  left  its 
print  on  these  shores.  In  fact,  eating  oysters  is  not 
such  a  marvellous  feat  that  large  piles  of  oyster-shells 
must  of  necessity  indicate  a  great  number  of  con- 
sumers. We  must  consider  also  that  as  the  natives 
depended  little  upon  agriculture  for  a  subsistence,  and 
as  hunting  was  a  less  certain  and  more  laborious  mode 
of  supply  than  fishing,  a  very  large  proportion  of  their 
food  consisted  of  the  produce  of  the  sea,  and  especially 
of  shell-fish."  Slender  as  is  our  knowledge  of  the 
Wepowaugs,  we  know  even  less  of  the  tribes  on  the 
coast  west  of  them.  Fairfield  and  Norwalk  were  pur- 
chased for  Connecticut,  and  Stamford  for  New  Haven. 
The  records  of  Stamford  inform  us  that  Capt.  Nathan- 
ael  Turner,  the  agent  of  New  Haven,  purchased  of 
Ponus,  sagamore  of  Toquams,  and  his  brother  Wascus- 
sue,  sagamore  of  Shippan,  the  territory  now  occupied 
by  Stamford,  Ponus  reserving  a  piece  of  ground  for 
himself  and  the  other  Indians  to  plant  upon.  The 
tribe  to  which  Ponus  and   his  family  belonged  were 


320  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

called  Siwanoys.  Greenwich  was  also  acquired  for 
New  Haven,  though  for  a  time  the  inhabitants  repudi- 
ated her  authority,  and  placed  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  Dutch.  It  is  said  that  the  sachems 
of  whom  Patrick  and  Peaks  purchased  Greenwich,  were 
sons  of  Ponus.  The  red  men  resident  in  the  vicinity 
have  been  estimated  at  from  three  hundred  to  five  hun- 
dred, but  even  the  latter  number  was  largely  increased 
during  the  war  which  the  Dutch  waged  with  the 
Indians,  many  of  whom  fled  to  Greenwich  from  their 
customary  abodes  nearer  to  New  Amsterdam.  This 
temporary  accession  to  the  aborigines  inhabiting  the 
territory  claimed  by  New  Haven  was  more  than  bal- 
anced by  the  terrible  slaughter  executed  by  Underbill 
in  the  sen'ice  of  the  Dutch,  who,  surprising  a  village  in 
Greenwich,  put  to  death  in  a  single  night,  by  lead, 
steel,  and  fire,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the  natives, 
five  hundred  of  its  inhabitants. 

With  the  exception  of  Southold,  which  was  purchased 
of  the  Montauks,  a  tribe  always  friendly  to  the  English, 
the  territory  of  New  Haven  colony  was  acquired  from 
the  Indians  mentioned  or  alluded  to  in  the  preceding 
paragraph.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  colony  had  less 
reason  to  apprehend  collision  with  the  aborigines  on 
its  own  territories  than  if  these  had  been  united  in  a 
single  tribe,  under  one  chieftain.  A  sagamore  who  had 
only  a  score  or  two  of  warriors,  even  if  smarting  under 
the  infliction  of  wrong,  would  not  be  so  quick  to  resort 
to  hostilities  as  one  who  counted  his  tribe  by  hundreds. 
It  was,  however,  the  policy  of  the  New  Haven  people, 
to  avoid  conflict  with  the  red  men  as  much  as  possible, 
and  to  cultivate  their  friendship.     They  were,  indeed, 


THE  ABORIGINES,  321 

,  earnest  for  war  with  Ninigret  in  1653  and  1654,  seeing 

li  no  (Jther  way  to  secure  peace  than  by  fighting  for  it ;  but 

-  i  their  history,  as  a  whole,  evinces  a  ruling  desire  to  live 

in  amity  with  their  Indian  neighbors.  They  were  care- 
ful to  deal  justly  with  them  in  all  public  dealings,  and 
to  avenge  any  injuries  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  greed 
or  passion  of  individuals.  This  is  true  of  the  fathers 
of  New  England  in  general;  but  Hubbard,  a  Massa- 
chusetts historian,  testifies  of  New  Haven,  in  par- 
ticular, "They  have  been  mercifully  preserved  from 
harm  and  violence  all  along  from  the  Indians,  setting 
aside  a  particular  assault  or  two,  the  means  whereof 
hath  been  a  due  carefulness  in  doing  justice  to  them 
upon  all  occasions  against  the  English,  yet  far  avoid- 
ing any  thing  looking  like  servility  or  flattery  for  base 
ends."  It  was  a  memorable  testimony  which,  as  Win- 
throp  relates,  a  Pequot  gave  in  favor  of  the  foe  who 
had  extinguished  the  tribal  existence  of  his  people. 
"  Those  at  New  Haven,  intending  a  plantation  at  Dela- 
ware,'sent  some  men  to  purchase  a  large  tract  of  land 
of  the  Indians  there,  but  they  refused  to  deal  with 
them.  It  so  fell  out  that  a  Pequot  sachem  (being  fled 
his  country  in  our  war  with  them,  and  having  seated 
himself,  with  his  company,  upon  that  river  ever  since) 
was  accidentally  there  at  that  time.  He,  taking  notice 
of  the  English  and  their  desire,  persuaded  the  other 
sachem  to  deal  with  them  ;  and  told  him  that  howso- 
ever they  had  killed  his  countrymen,  and  driven  them 
out,  yet  they  were  honest  men,  and  had  just  cause  to 
do  as  they  did,  for  the  Pequots  had  done  them  wrong, 
and  refused  to  give  such  reasonable  satisfaction  as  was 
demanded  of  them.      Whereupon  the   sachem   enter- 


322  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

tained    them,    and    let    them    have  what    land    they 
desired." 

As  respects  New  Haven  in  particular,  her  records 
show  a  disposition  to  do  justice  to  the  Indian.  Take 
the  following  cases  for  evidence  :  — 

"June  25,  1650.  A  seaman  that  went  in  Michael  Taynter's 
vessel  was  brought  before  the  governor,  and  accused  by  Wash,  an 
Indian,  that  he,  having  hired  him  to  show  him  tlie  way  to  Totoket 
and  agreed  for  twelvepence,  when  he  was  upon  the  way  Wash 
asked  him  for  his  money ;  the  man  gave  him  tenpence,  lack  two 
wampum.  Wash  said  he  must  have  twelvepence,  else  he  would 
not  go ;  whereupon  the  seaman  took  him  by  the  arm,  pulled  him, 
and  threw  him  down,  and  stamped  upon  him,  and,  in  stri\'ing 
broke  his  arm.  The  seaman  said  he  agreed  with  him  for  tenpence, 
and  gave  him  so  much ;  but  Wash  would  not  go,  and  struck  him 
first,  and  he  cannot  tell  that  he  broke  his  arm,  for  it  was  sore 
before.  Whereupon  Mr.  Besthup  and  Mr.  Augur,  two  surgeons 
being  desired  to  give  their  advice,  said,  to  their  best  apprehension 
the  arm  was  broken  now,  though  by  reason  of  an  old  sore,  whereby 
the  bone  might  be  infected,  might  cause  it  the  more  easily  to  break. 
The  Court  was  called,  but  none  came  to  the  governor  but  Mr. 
Crane,  Mr.  Gibbard,  and  Francis  Newman.  They  would  have  per- 
suaded Wash  to  have  taken  some  wampum  for  satisfaction,  but  he 
would  not  hear  of  it,  but  said  he  desired  it  might  be  healed  at  the 
man's  charge.  Whereupon  the  Court  desired  Mr.  Besthup  to  do 
the  best  he  could  to  heal  it,  and  promised  him  satisfaction,  and, 
for  the  present,  sent  the  man  to  prison.  But,  quickly  after,  Philip 
Leeke,  John  Jones,  and  Edward  Camp,  became  his  bail,  and  bound 
themselves  in  a  bond  of  j^io,  that,  upon  a  month's  warning  left 
with  Philip  Leeke,  the  man  should  make  his  appearance  here  before 
authority.  And  David  Sellevant  and  Robert  Lord  became  sureties, 
and  engaged  to  bear  them  harmless." 

"  March,  1664.  Nathanael Thorpe  being  called  before  the  Court 
for  stealing  venison  from  an  Indian  called  Ourance,  Ourance  was 
called,  and  asked  what  he  had  to  say  against  Nathaniel  Thorpe. 
Nasup,  on  his  behalf,  declared  that  Ourance  had  killed  a  deer, 


THE  ABORIGINES,  323 

and  hanged  some  of  it  upon  a  tree,  and  brought  some  of  it  away, 
and  coming  by  (on  the  sabbath  day,  in  Ihe  afternoon)  Nathanael 
Thorpe's  house,  his  dog  barked,  and  Nathanael  Thorpe  came  out 
and  asked  Ourance  what  he  carry,  and  Ourance  said  venison,  and 
further  said  that  he  had  more  a  little  walk  in  the  woods.  Then 
Nathanael  Thorpe  said  to  him  that  the  wolf  would  eat  it.  Ourance 
said,  No,  he  had  hanged  it  upon  a  tree.  Then  he  said  that 
Nathanael  Thorpe  said  to  him.  Where,  where  ?  and  he  told  him 
a  little  walk,  and  to-morrow  he  would  truck  it.  Then  to-morrow 
Ourance  went  for  the  venison,  and  two  quarters  of  it  was  gone, 
and  he  see  this  man's  track  in  the  snow,  and  see  blood.  Then  he 
came  to  Nathanael  Thorpe,  and  tell  him  that  he  steal  his  venison ; 
but  Nathanael  Thorpe  speak,  Ourance  lie,  and  that  he  would  tan- 
tack  him.  And  Ourance  further  said  that  he  whispered  to 
Nathanael  Thorpe,  and  told  him  if  he  would  give  him  his  veni- 
son he  would  not  discover  him ;  but  still  he  peremptorily  denied 
it,  and  told  many  lies  concerning  it,  and,  after  it  was  found  in  an 
outhouse  of  his,  he  said  he  had  trucked  the  week  before." 

Thorpe,  having  confessed  his  guilt :  — 

'*  He  was  told  seriously  of  his  sin,  and  of  his  falseness,  and 
that  after  he  seemed  to  hold  forth  sorrow  before  the  magistrates  ; 
yet  then  he  spake  falsely,  and  said  that  it  was  a  little  before  morn- 
ing he  rose  out  of  his  bed  and  did  it,  and  that  now  he  saith  it  was 
in  the  evening,  before  he  went  to  bed ;  and  he  was  told  the  several 
aggravations  of  his  sin,  as  that  it  seemed  to  be  contrived  on  the 
Lord's  day,  staying  at  home  by  reason  of  some  bodily  weakness, 
and  that  he  had  done  it  to  an  Indian,  and  to  a  poor  Indian,  and 
when  himself  had  no  need  of  it,  and  so  often  denying  it,  &c., 
whereby  he  makes  the  English  and  their  religion  odious  to  the 
heathen,  and  thereby  hardens  them.  So  the  Court  proceeded  to 
sentence,  and  for  his  theft  declared,  according  to  the  law  in  the 
case,  that  he  pay  double  to  the  Indian;  viz.,  the  venison,  with  two 
bushels  of  Indian  corn  ;  and  for  his  notorious  lying,  and  the  several 
aggravations  of  his  sin,  that  he  pay  as  a  fine  to  the  plantation  twenty 
shillings,  and  sit  in  the  stocks  the  Court's  pleasure.  And  he  was 
told,  that,  were  it  not  that  they  considered  him  as  sometimes  dis- 


324  HISTORY  OF  XEIV  HAVEN  COLONY, 

tempered  in  his  head,  they  should  have  been  more  sharp  with  him. 
Then  Nathanael  Thorpe  declared  that  he  desired  to  judge  himself 
for  his  sin,  and  that  the  Lord  would  bless  their  good  counsel  to 
him,  that  so  he  might  take  warning  for  the  future,  lest  it  be  worse 
with  him." 

Not  contenting  themselves  with  mere  justice,  the 
New  Haven  colony  were  also  kind  and  helpful  to  their 
Indian  neighbors.  Take,  for  evidence  and  illustration, 
the  following  action  of  the  town  of  New  Haven  con- 
cerning a  field  which  the  Indians  desired  to  have 
fenced :  — 

"  The  governor  acquainted  the  town  that  the  Indians  complain 
that  the  swine  that  belong  to  the  town,  or  farms,  do  them  much 
wrong  in  eating  their  corn ;  and  now  they  intend  to  take  in  a  new 
piece  of  ground,  and  they  desired  the  English  would  help  them  to 
fence  it,  and  that  those  who  have  meadows  at  the  end  of  their 
ground  would  fence  it,  and  save  them  fencing  about.  Sergeant 
Jeffrey  and  John  Brockett  were  desired  to  go  speak  with  them,  to 
know  what  ground  it  is  which  they  intend  to  take  in,  and  to  view 
it,  and  see  what  fencing  it  may  be,  and  give  them  the  best  direction 
they  can.  The  sagamore  also  desires  the  town  to  give  him  a  coat. 
He  saith  he  is  old  and  poor,  and  cannot  work.  The  town  declared 
themselves  free  that  he  should  have  a  coat  given  him  at  the  town's 
charge." 

At  the  next  meeting  it  was 

"  Ordered,  concerning  the  Indians'  land  spoken  of  the  last 
court,  that  Thomas  Jeffrey,  John  Brockett,  William  Tuttle,  and 
Robert  Talmadge  shall  be  a  committee  to  view  the  ground  which 
they  say  is  theirs,  and  to  adxnse  them  for  the  best  about  fencing: 
the  meadow  lying  against  their  ground  bearing  its  due  proportion : 
and  that  some  men  be  appointed  at  the  town's  charge  to  show 
them  how,  and  help  them  in  their  fencing;  that  so  we  may  not 
have  such  complaints  from  them  of  cattle  and  hogs  spoiling  their 
com,  which  they  say  makes  their  squaws  and  children  cr)-." 


THE  ABORIGINES,  32$ 

At  a  later  date  it  was 

"  Ordered  that  the  townsmen  shall  treat  with  the  Indians,  getting 
Mr.  Pierson  and  his  Indian  for  interpreters,  and  make  a  fiSll  agree- 
ment in  writing  what  we  shall  do,  and  what  they  shall  be  bound 
to ;  and  let  tliem  know  that  what  their  agreement  is,  we  expect 
they  shall  perform  it." 

In  this  agreement  tlircescore  days'  work  was  promised 
to  the  Indians  toward  their  fence,  and  the  town  voted 
that  the  work  "  should  be  done  by  men  fit  and  able  for 
the  work,  and  be  paid  for  out  of  the  town  treasury." 

Just  and  kind  treatment  of  the  aborigines  was  re- 
quired of  the  English  by  politic  prudence  as  well  as  by 
Christian  benevolence.  The  action  concerning  the 
sagamore*s  coat  and  the  fence  around  his  land  was 
taken  in  1653,  when,  throughout  all  the  colonies,  there 
was  some  fear  of  a  general  combination  of  Indians 
against  the  English.  New  Haven  does  not  seem  to 
have  felt  any  present  distrust  of  the  tribes  within  her 
borders,  but  the  intermingling  of  neighborly  kindness 
with  orders  for  special  military  preparations  and  pre- 
cautions suggests  that  the  manifestations  of  kindness 
may  have  proceeded,  not  from  pure  benevolence,  but 
from  a  complex  motive  in  which  prudence  was  a  con- 
siderable element. 

An  illustrative  instance  of  this  politic  prudence  oc- 
curred in  the  second  year  of  the  plantation  at  Quin- 
nipiac,  and  before  civil  government  had  been  formally 
instituted.  The  planters  at  Wethersficld,  having  some 
quarrel  with  Sowheag,  the  sachem  of  the  place,  had 
driven  him  from  his  reservation  near  their  village,  and 
he  had  removed  to  Middletown.     Sowheag,  in  prose- 


326  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

cution  of  the  quarrel,  had  incited,  or  at  least  encour- 
aged, the  Pequots  to  make  an  attack  on  Wethersfield, 
in  which  six  men  and  three  women  were  killed,  and 
had  ever  since  entertained  and  protected  the  Pequot 
warriors  by  whom  these  murders  were  committed.  The 
Pequot  war  being  now  ended,  so  that  the  Connecticut 
people  were  at  liberty  to  attend  to  Sowheag,  they  re- 
quired him  to  give  up  these  murderers ;  and,  upon  his 
refusal,  the  General  Court,  in  August,  1639,  ordered  a 
levy  of  one  hundred  men  to  be  sent  to  Mattabeseck,  as 
Middletown  was  then  called,  to  take  them  by  force. 
But  the  Court  also  determined  to  obtain  the  advice  and 
consent  of  their  friends  at  Quinnipiac  before  carrying 
their  design  into  execution. 

"Gov.  Eaton  and  his  council,'*  says  Trumbull,  "fully 
approved  of  the  design  of  bringing  the  delinquents  to 
condign  punishment,  but  they  disapproved  of  the  man- 
ner proposed  by  Connecticut.  They  feared  that  it  would 
be  introductive  to  a  new  Indian  war.  This,  they  repre- 
sented, would  greatly  endanger  the  new  settlements, 
and  be  many  ways  injurious  and  distressing.  They 
wanted  peace,  all  their  men  and  money,  to  prosecute  the 
design  of  planting  the  country.  They  represented  that 
a  new  war  would  not  only  injure  the  plantations  in  these 
respects,  but  would  prevent  the  coming  over  of  new 
planters  whom  they  expected  from  England.  They 
were  therefore  determinately  against  seeking  redress 
by  an  armed  force.  Connecticut,  through  their  influ-' 
ence,  receded  from  the  resolution  which  they  had 
formed  with  respect  to  Sowheag  and  Mattabeseck.** 

Eaton,  though  not  at  that  time,  as  Trumbull  care- 
lessly assumes,  governor  of  New  Haven  jurisdiction. 


THE  ABORIGINES,  327 

may  have  had  some  provisional  power  or  trust,  such 
as  was  abrogated  by  the  first  action  of  the  Court  when 
civil  government  was  settled  two  months  afterward. 
Certainly  his  voice  gave  expression  to  the  public  opinion 
of  his  plantation.  His  determined  opposition  to  the 
proposed  war  upon  Sowheag  is  easily  accounted  for  by 
the  nearness  of  Middletown  to  New  Haven,  and  by  the 
still  closer  contiguity  of  Montowese,  a  son  of  Sowheag, 
whose  wigwam  was  but  one  hour  distant  from  the 
English  houses  at  Quinnipiac. 

That  this  pacific  policy  of  New  Haven  was  not 
carried  to  a  hazardous  extreme,  is  evident  from  the 
punishment  inflicted  on  one  of  these  Pequot  mur- 
derers, who,  of  his  own  accord,  came  to  Quinnipiac, 
presuming,  perhaps,  on  the  manifested  leniency  of  that 
plantation.  The  trial  of  Nepaupuck,  which  commenced 
the  day  after  civil  government  was  instituted  at  Quin- 
nipiac, has  already  been  mentioned.  A  more  particular 
account  of  it  is  here  appropriate,  and  may  perhaps  be 
best  given  verbatim  from  the  record. 

"October  26th  1639.  The  civil  affairs  of  the  plantation  being 
settled  as  before,  by  the  providence  of  God  an  Indian  called  Mes- 
sutunck,  alias  Nepaupuck,  who  had  been  formerly  accused  to 
have  murderously  shed  the  blood  of  some  of  the  English,  of  his 
own  accord,  with  a  deer's  head  upon  his  back,  came  to  Mr.  Eaton's, 
where  by  warrant  the  marshal  apprehended  and  pinioned  him ;  yet 
notwithstanding,  by  the  subtlety  and  treachery  of  another  Indian 
his  companion,  he  had  almost  made  ah  escape ;  but  by  the  same 
providence  he  was  again  taken  and  delivered  into  the  magistrates 
power  and  by  his  order  safely  kept  in  the  stocks  till  he  might  be 
brought  to  a  due  trial.  And  the  Indian  who  had  attempted  his 
escape  was  whipped  by  the  marshal's  deputy. 

"October  28th   1639.     The  Quinnipiac  Indian  Sagamore  with 


328         .    HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

divers  of  his  Indians  with  him  were  examined  before  the  magistrate 
and  the  deputies  for  this  plantation  concerning  Nepaupuck.  They 
generally  accused  him  to  have  murdered  one  or  more  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  that  he  had  cut  off  some  of  their  hands  and  had  presented 
them  to  Sassacus  the  Pequot  sachem,  boasting  that  he  had  killed 
them  with  his  own  hands. 

"  Mewhebato  a  Quinnipiac  Indian,  kinsman  to  the  aforesaid  Ne- 
paupuck, coming  at  the  same  time  to  intercede  for  him,  was  exam- 
ined what  he  knew  concerning  the  murders  charged  upon  the  said 
Nepaupuck.  At  first  he  pretended  ignorance,  but  with  a  distracted 
countenance,  and  in  a  trembling  manner.  Being  admonished  to 
speak  the  truth  he  did  acknowledge  him  guilty  according  to  the 
charge  the  other  Indians  had  before  made. 

"All  the  other  Indians  withdrawing,  Nepaupuck  was  brought 
in  and  examined.  He  confessed  that  Nepaupuck  was  guilty  ac- 
cording to  the  tenure  of  the  former  charge,  but  denied  that  he  was 
Nepaupuck.  Mewhebato  being  brought  in,  after  some  signs  of 
sorrow,  charged  him  to  his  face  that  he  had  assisted  the  Pequots 
in  murdering  the  English.  This  somewhat  abated  his  spirit  and 
boldness ;  but  Wattoone,  the  son  of  Carroughood  a  councillor  to 
the  Quinnipiac  Indian  sagamore,  coming  in  charged  him  more 
particularly  that  he  had  killed  Abraham  Finch,  an  Englishman,  at 
Wethersfield,  and  that  he  himself,  the  said  Wattoone,  stood  upon 
the  island  at  Wethersfield  and  beheld  him,  the  said  Nepaupuck, 
now  present,  acting  the  said  murder. 

"Lastly,  the  Quinnipiac  sagamore  and  the  rest  of  the  Indians 
being  called  in.  to  his  face  afiirmcd  that  he  was  Nepaupuck,  and 
that  he  had  murdered  one  or  more  of  the  English  as  before. 

"  Nepaupuck  being  by  the  concurrence  of  testimony  convinced, 
confessed  he  was  the  man,  namely  Nepaupuck,  and  boasted  he  was 
a  great  captain,  had  murdered  Abraham  Finch,  and  had  his  hands 
in  other  English  blood.  He  said  he  knew  he  must  die,  and  was 
not  afraid  of  it ;  but  laid  his  neck  to  the  mantel-tree  of  the  chim- 
ney, desiring  that  his  head  might  be  cut  off,  or  that  he  might  die 
in  any  other  manner  the  English  should  appoint;  only,  he  said, 
fire  was  God  and  God  was  angry  with  him;  therefore  he  would 
not  fall  into  his  hands.  After  this  he  was  returned  to  the  stocks, 
and,  as  before,  a  watch  appointed  for  his  safe  custody. 


THE  ABORIGINES.  329 

"A  general  court  29th  of  October,  1639.  ^  general  court 
being  assembled  to  proceed  against  the  said  Indian  Nepaupuck, 
who  was  then  brought  to  the  bar  and  being  examined  as  before, 
at  the  first  he  denied  that  he  was  that  Nepaupuck  which  had  com- 
mitted those  murders  wherewith  he  was  charged;  but  when  he 
saw  that  the  Quinnipiac  Sagamore  and  his  Indians  did  again 
accuse  him  to  his  face,  he  confessed  that  he  had  his  hand  in  the 
murder  of  Abraham  Finch,  but  yet  he  said  there  was  a  Mohawk 
of  that  name  that  had  killed  more  than  he. 

"Wattoone  affirmed  to  his  face  that  he,  the  said  Nepaupuck, 
did  not  only  kill  Abraham  Finch,  but  was  one  of  them  that  killed 
the  tliree  men  in  the  boat  or  shallop  on  Connecticut  River,  and 
that  there  was  but  one  Nepaupuck  and  this  was  he  and  the  same 
that  took  a  child  of  Mr.  Swain  at  Wethersfield.  Then  the  said 
Nepaupuck  being  asked  if  he  would  not  confess  that  he  deserved 
to  die,  he  answered,  *  It  is  weregin^  * 

"  The  Court  having  had  such  pregnant  proof,  proceeded  to  pass 
sentence  upon  him  according  to  the  nature  of  the  fact  and  the  rule 
in  that  case,  *  He  that  sheds  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood 
be  shed.'  Accordingly  his  head  was  cut  off  the  next  day  and 
pitched  upon  a  pole  in  the  market  place." 

If  Nepaupuck  had  been  a  lawyer,  he  might  have  de- 
murred not  only  to  the  indictment  for  murder  of  one 
who  had  killed  in  war  the  enemies  of  his  tribe,  but 
also  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a  power  which  had  been 
in  existence  but  a  single  day,  and  did  not  even  then 
claim  as  its  own,  the  territory  where  a  crime  was  alleged 
to  have  been  committed  two  years  befor£.  But  his  un- 
tutored mind  approved  of  that  principle  of  natural  jus- 
tice, according  to  which,  in  every  instance  in  which 
English  blood  was  shed  by  an  Indian,  the  English  re- 
quired life  for  life  without  regard  to  territorial  limita- 
tion. His  own  people  acted  upon  the  same  principle, 
and  he  justified  it  when  it  recoiled  upon  himself. 

*  Well,  or  good.  Some  dialects  used  n  in  place  of  r.  Eliot's  Bible 
has  vmnnegin  in  Gen.  i.  10, '  God  saw  that  it  was  wunncgin^ 


330  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

In  making  common  cause  throughout  all  the  colonies 
against  Indian  murderers,  certainly  the  English  did  no 
injustice.  They  had  a  right  thus  to  combine  for  the 
protection  of  life.  In  deciding  whether  they  were  jus- 
tifiable in  treating  as  murderers  those  who  had  shed 
English  blood  in  war,  it  should  be  taken  into  consider- 
ation, that,  as  Capt.  Underbill  expresses  it,  "the  In- 
dians' fight  far  differs  from  the  Christian  practice." 
Civilized  nations  have  agreed  that  soldiers  shall  not  be 
held  individually  responsible  for  homicide  in  battle  \ 
but  this  agreement  would  not  cover  such  homicides  as 
those  of  which  Nepaupuck  was  convicted,  and  of  which 
Indian  warriors  were  customarily  guilty  whenever  they 
could  surprise  an  unarmed  foe.  Fighting  with  a  people 
wholly  uncivilized,  the  English  planters  in  New  Eng- 
land were  obliged  to  deviate  from  the  usages  established 
among  civilized  nations,  and  adapt  their  practice  to 
the  exigencies  of  their  situation. 

Another  execution  of  an  Indian  occurred  in  1644, 
near  the  close  of  the  war  between  the  Indians  and  the 
Dutch.  A  savage  named  Busheage,  not  discriminating 
between  the  two  European  nations  whose  settlements 
were  so  little  space  apart,  came  into  a  house  at  Stam-  f  ^.t-f 
ford,  none  being  at  home  but  a  woman  and  her  infant, 
and,  with  a  lathing-hammer,  which  he  picked  up  and 
examined  as  if  with  intent  to  purchase,  struck  the 
woman  as  she  stooped  down  to  take  her  child  out  of 
the  cradle.  The  wound  was  not  fatal,  but  the  woman 
became  hopelessly  insane.  Busheage,  being  deliv^ered 
to  the  English,  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to 
death.  Winthrop  says,  "  The  executioner  would  strike 
off  his  head  with  a  falchion,  but  he  had  eight  blows  at 


THE  ABORIGINES.  33 1 

it  before  he  could  effect  it,  and  the  Indian  sat  upright 
and  stirred  not  all  the  time." 

Four  years  later  Stamford  was  the  scene  of  another 
tragedy.  Taphanse,  a  son  of  Ponus,  the  sachem  of 
the  place,  brought  news  into  the  town  that  an  Indian 
named  Toquatoes,  living  up  near  the  Mohawks,  had 
said  at  thfir  wigwams  that  he  would  kill  an  English- 
man ;  that  they  had  offered  him  wampum  not  to  do  it ; 
that  he  had  come  again  and  reported  that  he  had  done 
it,  and  that  he  had  gone  away  in  haste,  and  left  some 
of  the  Englishman's  clothing.  From  that  time,  Mr. 
John  Whitmore,  one  of  the  principal  inhabitants,  was 
missing.  Two  months  afterward,  Uncas,  sachem  of  the 
Mohegans,  coming  to  Stamford  to  assist  his  English 
friends  to  investigate  the  matter,  was  at  once  conducted 
by  Taphanse  to  the  place  where  lay  the  remains  of  the 
murdered  man.  Uncas  and  his  Mohegan  companions 
were  satisfied  that  Taphanse  was  himself  guilty  of  the 
murder,  but  he  escaped  before  they  could  apprehend 
him.*  Fifteen  years  afterward,  being  arrested  and  ex- 
amined, he  was  pronounced  "guilty  of  suspicion,"  but 
"not  guilty  in  point  of  death." 

As  the  people  of  New  Haven  had  to  do  not  only  with 
the  aborigines  within  their  borders,  but  with  some  who 
were  without,  we  have  occasion  to  describe  some  of 
their  Indian  neighbors  who  dwelt  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  jurisdiction.  Prominent  among  these  was  Uncas, 
sachem  of  the  Mohegans.  De  Forest,  in  "The  In- 
dians of  Connecticut,"  thus  describes  him  :  "  In  person, 
Uncas  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  large  frame  and 
great  physical  strength.  His  courage  could  never  be 
doubted,  for  he  displayed  it  too  often  and  too  clearly  in 


332  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

war.  No  sachem,  however,  was  ever  more  fond  of  over- 
coming his  enemies  by  stratagem  and  trickery.  He 
seemed  to  set  little  value  upon  the  glory  of  vanquishing 
in  war,  compared  with  the  advantages  it  brought  him 
in  the  shape  of  booty,  and  new  subjects,  and  wider 
hunting-grounds.  He  favored  his  own  men,  and  was, 
therefore,  popular  with  them ;  but  all  others  who  fell 
under  his  power  he  tormented  with  continual  exactions 
and  annoyances.  His  nature  was  selfish,  jealous,  and 
tyrannical ;  his  ambition  was  grasping,  and  unrelieved 
by  a  single  trait  of  magnanimity." 

Originally  a  Pequot,  and  by  blood  a  kinsman  of  Sas- 
sacus,  chief  sachem  of  the  Pequots  at  the  time  when 
the  Pequot  tribe  was  extinguished  by  the  English, 
Uncas  had  allied  himself  still  more  closely  with  the 
royal  family  of  his  tribe  by  marrying  a  daughter  of 
Sassacus.  But,  previous  to  the  Pequot  war,  he  had 
broken  friendship  with  Sassacus,  and  become  an  exile 
from  his  tribe.  The  outbreak  of  hostilities  between 
the  English  and  the  Pequots  was  to  him,  therefore,  a 
welcome  opportunity  for  revenge.  With  a  score  or  two 
of  followers  he  joined  the  expedition  of  Capt.  Mason 
against  his  native  tribe  in  1637,  which,  without  the  guid- 
ance of  Uncas  and  Wequash,  would  probably  have  been 
fruitless.  Uncas  had  profited  by  the  success  of  that 
expedition  as  much,  perhaps,  as  the  English.  The  num- 
ber of  his  followers  was  increased  by  such  captured  Pe- 
quots as  were  allowed  to  join  his  people,  and  by  other 
Indians  who  appreciated  the  advantage  he  might  derive 
from  being  the  ally  of  the  wonderful  white  men. 

Uncas  married,  and  probably  before  the  Pequot  war, 
a  daughter  of  Sebequanash,  sachem  of  the  Hammonas- 


THE  ABORIGINES,  333 

sets,  and  by  this  marriage  acquired  a  large  tract  of 
land  on  the  shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  extending 
westward  from  Connecticut  River  till  it  touched  the 
land  of  the  Guilford  branch  of  the  Quinnipiacs.  This 
he  sold  to  Mr,  Fenwick  and  the  planters  of  Guilford, 
and  withdrew  to  the  east  side  of  the  Connecticut  River, 
to  a  region,  which,  as  it  had  formerly  belonged  to  his 
ancestors,  the  Pequot  sachems,  was  now  assigned  to 
him  as  his  portion  of  the  spoils  of  war.  When  at  the 
height  of  his  power,  and  during  that  portion  of  his 
career  when  history  mentions  him  most  frequently,  his 
realidence  was  commonly  at  Norwich.  But  in  1644  he 
seems  to  have  been  residing,  at  least  temporarily,  on  his 
Hammonasset  land ;  for  in  December  of  that  year,  in 
town  meeting  at  New  Haven,  "  upon  complaint  made 
by  some  of  the  planters  of  Totoket  that  the  Mohegan 
Indians  have  done  much  damage  to  them  by  setting 
their  traps  in  the  walk  of  their  cattle,  it  was  ordered 
that  the  marshal  shall  go  with  Thomas  Whitway  to 
warn  Uncas,  or  his  brother,  or  else  I^oxon,  to  come  and 
speak  with  the  governor  and  the  magistrates."  At  this 
time  Uncas,  having  sold  a  strip  of  land  on  the  shore, 
still  claimed  for  his  son  by  his  Hammonasset  wife  the 
northern  part  of  the  land  which  she  had  inherited.  He 
and  his  son  united  in  a  deed  conveying  it  to  the  planters 
of  Guilford  in  January,  1663.  The  mark  of  Uncas 
affixed  to  the  deed  is  a  rude  image  of  a  turtle  ;  and  that 
of  his  son  Ahaddon,  alias  Joshua,  is  a  still  more  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  represent  a  deer. 

The  rising  power  of  Uncas  and  his  alliance  with  the 
English  drew  upon  him  the  hatred  of  other  Indian 
chiefs,  especially  of  Miantinomoh,  head  sachem  of  the 


334  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Narragansets.  Miantinomoh,  while  professing  friend- 
ship for  the  English,  was  suspected  of  complicity  in  a 
plot  for  the  destruction  of  all  white  men  throughout 
New  England,  and  of  those  Indians  who  could  not  be 
detached  from  their  cause.  After  prompting  several 
vain  attempts  to  assassinate  Uncas,  Miantinomoh 
attacked  him  without  warning,  and  without  regard  to  an 
engagement  that  he  would  not  make  war  upon  Uncas 
without  permission  of  the  English.  Miantinomoh  being 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner,  Uncas  desired  for  his  own 
security  to  put  him  to  death ;  but  not  venturing  to  do  so 
without  the  consent  of  his  white  allies,  brought  him  to 
Hartford,  and  asked  the  advice  of  the  governor  and 
magistrates  of  Connecticut.  As  these  occurrences  had 
taken  place  in  the  summer  of  1643,  and  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  confederate  colonies  were  to  hold  their 
first  meeting  in  September,  it  was  resolved  to  refer  the 
whole  matter  to  their  decision,  Miantinomoh  being 
meanwhile  left  in  the  custody  of  the  English.  The 
commissioners  detdcrmined  "  that  as  it  was  evident  that 
Uncas  could  not  be  safe  while  Miantinomoh  lived,  but 
that  either  by  secret  treachery  or  open  force  his  life 
would  be  continually  in  danger,  he  might  justly  put 
such  a  false  and  blood-thirsty  enemy  to  death."  It  was 
further  determined  that  if  Uncas  should  be  assailed  on 
account  of  the  execution  of  Miantinomoh,  the  English 
would,  upon  his  desire,  assist  him  against  such  violence. 
The  meeting  of  the  commissioners  was  at  Boston ;  and 
their  determination  in  regard  to  Miantinomoh  was  kept 
secret  till  Hopkins  and  Fenwick,  commissioners  from 
Connecticut,  and  Eaton  and  Gregson,  commissioners 
from  New  Haven,  had  arrived  home,  some  intimation 


THE  ABORIGINES.  335 

having  been  received  that  if  it  was  determined  to  give 
Miantinomoh  back  to  Uncas,  these  gentlemen  would  be 
seized  whilef  on  their  journey  home,  and  held  as  hostages 
for  the  safety  of  the  sachem. 

The  commissioners  had  stipulated  that  Miantinomoh 
should  not  be  tortured,  and  that  his  execution  should 
not  take  place  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  English. 
Accordingly,  when  the  decision  of  the  commissioners 
was  made  known,  Uncas,  coming  to  Hartford,  received 
his  prisoner,  and  led  him  not  only  beyond  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Connecticut,  but  to  the  place  of  his  capture 
near  Norwich.  When  they  came  upon  the  plain  where 
the  battle  had  been  fought,  Wawequa,  a  brother  of 
Uncas,  was  walking  behind  Miantinomoh.  Upon  a 
signal  from  his  brother,  Wawequa  silently  raised  his 
tomahawk,  and  sunk  it  into  the  head  of  the  captive, 
killing  him  with  a  single  blow. 

We  have  given  this  story  of  Miantinomoh  and  his 
execution,  not  because  it  is  part  of  the  history  of  New 
Haven,  but  because  it  explains  some.,  parts  of  that  his- 
tory. It  was  this  execution  which  occasioned  the 
sending  of  the  six  soldiers  from  New  Haven  a  few 
weeks  after  the  event,  the  similar  expedition  about  two 
years  afterward,  and  perhaps  the  temporary  residence 
of  Uncas  west  of  the  Connecticut  River  in  the  inter- 
vening time.  The  uneasiness  observable  for  some  years 
among  the  Indians  is  also  sometimes  ascribed  to  the 
execution  of  Miantinomoh  ;  but  possibly,  if  he  had  con- 
tinued to  live,  there  might  have  been  not  only  rumors 
of  war,  but  an  actual  coalition  of  many  tribes  against 
the  English.  More  than  any  other  chieftain  of  his 
time  he  possessed  the  qualities  necessary  for  combining 


336  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

whatever  elements  of  hostility  were  lying  separated  and 
scattered  among  the  aborigines ;  and  the  people  of  New 
Haven  and  of  the  other  colonies  seem  to  have  felt  that 
the  danger  of  a  general  and  destructive  war  was  dimin- 
ished by  this  victory  of  Uncas  over  Miantinomoh. 

Uncas,  though  a  faithful  ally  of  the  colonists,  was 
utterly  untcachable  in  regard  to  English  civilization, 
morals,  and  religion.  Standing  over  the  fallen  Mianti- 
nomoh, he  cut  a  piece  of  flesh  from  the  shoulder  of  his 
foe,  and  ate  it,  exclaiming,  "  It  is  the  sweetest  meat  I 
ever  ate !  It  makes  my  heart  strong ! "  De  Forest 
says,  "  He  oppressed  the  Pcquots  who  were  subject  to 
him ;  he  abused  and  plundered  those  who  were  not 
properly  his  subjects ;  he  robbed  one  man  of  his  wife ; 
he  robbed  another  man  of  his  corn  and  beans ;  he  em- 
bezzled wampum  which  he  had  been  commissioned  to 
deliver  to  the  English ;  and  he  and  his  brother  Wawe- 
qua  took  every  opportunity  of  subjecting,  or  at  least 
plundering,  their  neighbors.  The  colonists,  however, 
did  not  encourage  him  in  these  acts  of  violence ;  and 
sometimes,  as  the  records  of  those  times  show,  admin- 
istered to  him  sharp  rebukes,  and  even  punishment." 

Happening  to  be  in  New  Haven  on  other  business 
when  the  commissioners  were  in  session  there  in  1646, 
he  was  called  to  answer  several  charges,  one  of  which 
was  that  he  had  beaten  and  plundered  some  Indians 
employed  by  Englishmen  to  hunt  near  New  London. 
Uncas  acknowledged  that  he  had  done  wrong  in  using 
violence  so  near  an  English  settlement,  but  did  not 
appear  very  penitent  for  his  ill  treatment  of  the  Indi- 
ans. The  next  year  the  commissioners  met  at  Boston, 
and  Uncas  was  again  summoned  to  answer  many  com- 


THE  ABORIGINES.  337 

plaints  brought  against  him.  That  from  New  London 
being  renewed,  he  was  fined  one  hundred  fathom  of 
wampum,  to  be  divided  among  those  who  had  suffered 
wrong  at  his  hands.  On  this  occasion  Uncas  did  not 
appear  in  person,  but  was  represented  by  Foxon,  a 
sagamore  who  had  been  associated  with  him,  apparently 
from  the  beginning  of  his  upward  career,  and  by  diplo- 
matic ability  had  contributed  much  to  the  success  of 
his  chief.  Foxon  was  held  in  reputation,  as  the  apostle 
Eliot  informs  us,  even  among  the  Massachusetts  tribes, 
"as  the  wisest  Indian  in  the  country."  He  made  a 
dexterous  defence  on  this  occasrion,  declaring  that  he 
had  never  heard  of  some  of  the  misdeeds  charged  ;  pos- 
itively denying  others ;  justifying,  as  in  accord  with 
the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Indians,  the  appropria- 
tion of  Obechiquod's  wife  when  her  husband  had  fled 
from  the  territories  of  his  sachem,  leaving  her  behind ; 
and  admitting  the  charge  that  Wawequa,  at  the  head 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty  Mohegans,  had  attacked  and 
plundered  the  Nipmucks,  carrying  away  thirty-five 
fathoms  of  wampum,  ten  copper  kettles,  ten  iarge 
hempen  baskets,  and  many  bear-skins,  deer-skins,  and 
other  articles  of  value ;  but  claiming  that  Uncas,  with 
his  chief  men,  was  at  New  Haven  when  it  was  done, 
and  knew  nothing  of  the  affair ;  that  he  never  shared 
in  the  spoils,  and  that  some  of  his  own  Indians  were 
robbed  at  the  same  time. 

So  far  was  Uncas  from  receiving  with  favor  the  reli- 
gion of  his  allies,  that  a  contemporary  mentions  him  as 
an  opposcr  of  Mr.  Fitch,  the  first  minister  of  Norwich, 
in  his  endeavors  to  instruct  the  Mohegans  in  Chris- 
tianity.    "  I  am  apt  to  fear,'*  says  Gookin  in  his  "  His- 


338  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

torical  Collections  of  the  Indians  in  New  England," 
"  that  a  great  obstruction  to  his  labors  is  in  the  sachem 
of  those  Indians,  whose  name  is  Uncas,  an  old  and 
wicked,  wilful  man,  a  drunkard,  and  otherwise  very 
vicious,  who  hath  always  been  an  opposer  and  under- 
miner  of  praying  to  God."  Fitch  himself,  in  a  letter 
to  Gookin,  gives  similar  testimony,  saying  that  Uncas 
and  the  other  sachems  "  at  first  carried  it  teachably  and 
tractably,  until  at  length  the  sachems  did  discern  that 
religion  would  not  consist  with  a  mere  receiving  of  the 
Word,  and  that  practical  religion  will  throw  down  their 
heathenish  idols  and  the  sachem's  tyrannical  monarchy ; 
and  then  the  sachems,  discerning  this,  did  not  only 
go  away,  but  drew  off  their  people,  some  by  flatteries 
and  others  by  threatenings,  and  would  not  suffer  them 
to  give  so  much  as  an  outward  attendance  to  the  min- 
istry of  the  word  of  God." 

When  Uncas  went  with  Capt.  Mason  to  fight  against 
his  native  tribe,  he  was  accompanied  by  another  saga- 
more called  by  the  English,  Wequash,  or  Wequash  Cook. 
Perhaps  his  name  in  the  Indian  language  was  a  word 
of  three  syllables,  as  Wequashcuk.  He  was  of  the 
Niantic  tribe,  the  eldest  son  of  its  chief  sachem,  but 
for  some  reason  had  not  succeeded  to  his  father's 
place.  As  he  is  sometimes  called  a  Pequot,  it  is  sur- 
mised that  his  mother  was  a  Pequot,  and  of  so  low  rank 
that  her  children,  according  to  Indian  law  and  custom, 
were  obliged  to  give  place  to  an  uncle,  who,  upon  the 
death  of  their  father,  became  chief  sachem  of  the  Nian- 
tics.  This  uncle  of  Wequash  was  none  other  than 
Kinigret,  whom  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  men- 


THE  ABORIGINES,  339 

tion  as,  in  later  times,  an  enemy  of  the  English.  We- 
quash,  in  1637,  when  Uncas  and  he  went  with  Mason, 
was  acknowledged  as  a  sagamore  by  a  few  followers ; 
but  as  the  whole  number  of  Indians  in  that  expedition 
was  only  seventy,  and  Uncas  was  so  much  more  promi- 
nent than  Wequash  that  the  latter  is  barely  mentioned 
by  the  historians,  it  is  evident  that  his  clan  was  not  nu- 
merous. Probably,  as  a  sagamore,  he  was  more  nearly 
on  a  par  with  Montowese  than  with  Momaugin. 

When  Mason,  after  a  march  of  about  two  miles  be- 
fore dawn  of  day,  drew  near  to  Mystic  Fort,  he  sent  for 
his  Indian  allies  to  come  to  the  front.  Only  Uncas 
and  Wequash  came.  Mason  inquired  of  them  where 
the  fort  was.  They  replied  that  it  was  on  the  top  of 
the  hill  at  whose  foot  they  were  now  standing.  "  He 
demanded  of  them  where  were  the  other  Indians. 
They  answered  that  they  were  much  afraid.  The  cap- 
tain sent  to  them  not  to  fly,  but  to  surround  the  fort  at 
any  distance  they  pleased,  and  see  whether  Englishmen 
would  fight."  These  timid  allies  did  but  very  little  fight- 
ing, but  they  were  interested  and  astonished  observers. 
The  destruction  of  the  fort  and  of  its  occupants  made, 
doubtless,  upon  all  of  them  a  profound  impression  of 
respect  for  English  power  ;  but  in  the  mind  of  Wequash 
it  awakened  a  spirit  of  inquiry  in  regard  to  the  English- 
men's God,  which  led  him  finally  to  a  hearty  and  influ- 
ential reception  of  Christianity.  An  account  of  his 
religious  experience  may  perhaps  be  best  given  in  the 
language  of  an  anonymous  contemporary  :  — 

"  This  man,  a  few  years  since,  seeing  and  beholding  the  mighty 
power  of  God  in  our  English  forces,  how  they  fell  upon  the  Pe- 
quots,  when  divers  hundreds  of  them  were  slain  in  an  hour,  the 


340  HISTORY  OF  A^EIV  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Lord  as  a  God  of  glory  in  great  terror  did  appear  to  the  soul  and 
conscience  of  this  poor  wretch  in  that  very  act ;  and  though  before 
that  time  he  had  low  apprehensions  of  our  God,  having  conceived 
him  to  be  (as  he  said)  but  a  mosquito  God  or  a  God  like  unto  a 
fly;  and  as  mean  thoughts  of  the  English  that  served  this  God, 
that  they  were  silly,  weak  men ;  yet  from  that  time  he  was  con- 
vinced and  persuaded  that  our  God  was  a  most  dreadful  God ;  and 
that  one  Englishman  by  the  help  of  his  God  was  able  to  slay  and 
put  to  flight  an  hundred  Indians. 

^*  This  conviction  did  pursue  and  follow  him  night  and  day,  so 
that  he  could  have  no  rest  or  quiet  because  he  was  ignorant  of  the 
Englishman's  God :  he  went  up  and  down  bemoaning  his  condi- 
tion, and  filling  ever}'  place  where  he  came  with  sighs  and  groans. 
Afterward  it  pleased  the  Lord  that  some  English  well  acquainted 
with  his  language  did  meet  with  him  ;  thereupon,  as  a  hart  panting 
after  the  water  brooks,  he  enquired  after  God  with  such  incessant 
diligence  that  they  were  constrained  constantly  for  his  satisfaction 
to  spend  more  than  half  the  night  in  conversing  with  him. 

"  Afterward  he  came  to  dwell  amongst  the  English  at  Connecti- 
cut V  and  travailing  with  all  his  might  and  lamenting  after  the 
Lord,  his  manner  was  to  smite  his  hand  on  his  breast  and  td  com- 
plain sadly  of  his  heart,  saying  it  was  much  matchet  (that  is,  very 
evil),  and  when  any  spake  with  him,  he  would  say,  *  Wequash  no 
God,  Wequash  no  know  Christ.'  It  pleased  the  Lord,  that,  in  the 
use  of  the  means,  he  grew  greatly  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ  and 
in  the  principles  of  religion,  and  became  thoroughly  reformed 
according  to  his  light,  hating  and  loathing  himself  for  his  dearest 
sins,  which  were  especially  these  two,  lust  and  revenge.  This 
repentance  for  the  former  was  testified  by  his  temperance  and 
abstinence  from  all  occasions  or  matter  of  provocation  thereunto ; 
secondly,  by  putting  away  all  his  wives,  saving  the  first,  to  whom 
he  had  most  right.  His  repentance  for  the  latter  was  testified  by 
an  eminent  degree  of  meekness  and  patience,  that  now,  if  any  did 
abuse  him,  he  could  lie  down  at  their  feet ;  and  if  any  did  smite 
him  on  the  one  cheek,  he  would  rather  turn  the  other  than  offend 
them  (many  trials  he  had  from  the  Indians  in  this  case);  secondly, 
by  going  up  and  down  to  those  he  had  offered  violence  or  wrong 
unto,  confessing  it,  and  making  restitution. 


THE  ABORIGINES,  '     34I 

"Afterward  he  went  amongst  the  Indians,  like  that  poor  woman 
of  Samaria,  proclaiming  Christ,  and  telling  them  what  a  treasure 
he  had  found,  instructing  them  in  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God ; 
and  this  he  did  with  a  grave  and  serious  spirit,  warning  them  with 
all  faithfulness  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  by  breaking  o5  their 
sins  and  wickedness.  This  course  of  his  did  so  disturb  the  devil 
that  ere  long  some  of  the  Indians,  whose  hearts  Satan  had  filled, 
did  secretly  give  him  poison,  which  he  took  without  suspicion ; 
and,  when  he  lay  upon  his  death-bed,  some  Indians  who  were  by 
him  wishing  him,  according  to  the  Indian  manner,  to  send  for  a 
powwow,  that  is,  a  wizard ;  he  told  them,  *  If  Jesus  Christ  say 
that  Wequash  shall  live,  then  Wequash  must  live ;  if  Jesus  Christ 
say  that  Wequash  shall  die,  then  Wequash  is  willing  to  die,-  and 
will  not  lengthen  out  his  life  by  any  such  means.'  Before  he  died, 
he  did  bequeath  his  child  to  the  godly  care  of  the  English  for 
education  and  instruction,  and  so  yielded  up  his  soul  into  Christ's 
hands."  * 

This  anonymous  witness,  who  was  apparently  a  New- 
England  minister  visiting  the  mother  country,  amplifies 
more  than  any  other  the  story  of  Wequash*s  conversion 
and  subsequent  Christian  life ;  but  his  story  is  in  the 
main  corroborated  by  contemporaries  writing  over  their 
own  names.     Winthrop  thus  records  the  case :  — 

**  Ont  Wequash  Cook,  an  Indian,  living  about  Connecticut 
River's  mouth,  and  keeping  much  at  Saybrook  with  Mr.  Fenwick, 
attained  to  good  knowledge  of  the  things  of  God  and  salvation  by 
Christ,  so  as  he  became  a  preacher  to  other  Indians,  and  labored 
much  to  convert  them,  but  without  any  effect,  for  within  a  short 
time  he  fell  sick,  not  without  suspicion  of  poison  from  them,  and 
died  very  comfortably." 

*  New  England's  First  Fruits,  London,  printed  by  R.  CJ.  and  G.  D. 
for  Henry  Overton,  and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  shop  in  Popes-head-alley. 
1643. 


342  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  fervent  Thomas  Shepard  writes  in  a  letter  to  a 

friend :  — 

'*  Wequash,  the  famous  Indian  at  the  river's  mouth,  is  dead,  and 
certainly  in  heaven ;  gloriously  did  the  grace  of  Christ  shine  forth 
in  his  conversation ;  a  year  and  a  half  before  his  death  he  knew 
Christ;  he  loved  Christ;  he  preached  Christ  up  and  down,  and 
then  suffered  martyrdom  for  Christ ;  and  when  he  died,  he  gave  his 
soul  to  Christ,  and  his  only  child  to  the  English,  rejoicing  in  this 
hope  that  the  child  should  know  more  of  Christ  than  its  poor 
father  ever  did." 

Roger  Williams,  mentioning  Wequash  in  his  "Key 
into  the  Indian  Languages,"  says,  — 

"Two  days  before  his  death,  as  I  passed  up  to  Connecticut 
River,  it  pleased  my  worthy  friend  Mr.  Fenwick,  whom  I  visited  at 
his  house  in  Saybrook  Fort  at  the  mouth  of  that  river,  to  tell  me 
that  my  old  friend  Wequash  lay  very  sick.  I  desired  to  see  him, 
and  himself  was  pleased  to  be  my  guide  two  miles  where  Wequash 
lay.  Amongst  other  discourse  concerning  his  sickness  and  death, 
in  which  he  freely  bequeathed  his  son  to  Mr.  Fenwick,  I  closed 
with  him  concerning  his  soul.  He  told  me  that  some  two  or  three 
years  before,  he  had  lodged  at  my  house,  when  I  acquainted  him 
with  the  condition  of  all  mankind  and  his  own  in  particular ;  how 
God  created  man  and  all  things ;  how  man  fell  from  God  and  his 
present  enmity  against  God,  and  the  wrath  of  God  against  him 
until  repentance.  Said  he, '  Your  words  were  never  out  of  my  heart 
to  this  present,  and  me  much  pray  to  Jesus  Christ.*  I  told  him,  so 
did  many  English,  French,  and  Dutch,  who  had  never  turned  to 
God,  nor  loved  him.  He  replied  in  broken  English,  *  Me  so  big- 
naughty  heart;  me  heart  all  one  stone  I*  Savory  expressions, 
using  to  breathe  from  compunct  and  broken  hearts  and  a  sense  of 
inward  hardness  and  unbrokenness.  I  had  many  discourses  with 
him  in  his  life,  but  this  was  the  sum  of  our  last  parting  until  our 
general  meeting." 

Though  Wequash  did  but  little  active  fighting  at 
Mystic,  he  drew  upon  himself  by  his  alliance  with  the 


THE  ABORIGINES,  343 

English  the  deep  hostility  of  some  of  his  own  race. 
This  hatred  may  have  been  afterward  intensified  by  his 
espousal  of  the  religion  of  the  white  men.  But  if  he 
died  by  poison,  it  was  doubtless  his  friendship  for  the 
English  which  inflamed  his  murderers. 

Indeed,  from  the  first,  his  friends  feared  that  his  life 
was  in  danger.  Capt.  Stoughton,  sending  home  to  the 
governor  and  council  of  Massachusetts  a  report  of  his 
expedition  westward  in  pursuit  of  the  remnant  of  the 
Pequots,  says,  "For  Wequash,  we  fear  he  is  killed ;  and 
if  he  be,  *tis  a  mere  wicked  plot ;  and  seeing  he  showed 
faithfulness  to  us,  and  for  it  is  so  rewarded,  it  is  hard 
measure  to  us-ward  ;  and  what  is  meet  to  be  done 
therein  is  difficult  for  me  to  conclude.  I  shall,  there- 
fore, desire  your  speedy  advice." 

If  Wequash  was  in  Stoughton's  expedition,  as  this 
mention  of  him  suggests,  he  must  have  been  a  valua- 
ble source  of  information  in  regard  to  Quinnipiac,  for 
he  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  Indians  of  that 
place.  A  deed,  in  which  Uncas  conveyed  land  to  the 
planters  of  Guilford,  denies  the  ownership  of  other 
Indians,  who  "  have  seemed  to  lay  claim  to  these  lands 
aforesaid,  as  the  sachem  squaw  of  Quinnipiac,  and 
Wequash  through  her  right,  the  one-eyed  squaw  of 
Totoket,  and  others."  Wequash  himself,  a  few  weeks 
previous  to  this  sale  by  Uncas,  had  signed  a  deed  con- 
veying a  tract  of  land  to  Mr.  Whitfield,  alleging  that  he 
derived  his  title  from  the  sachem  squaw  of  Quinnipiac. 
For  some  reason  which  does  not  appear  on  the  record, 
the  proprietors  of  New  Haven  accounted  themselves 
under  obligation  to  Wequash ;  for,  under  date  of  Nov. 
29,  1641,  "it  is  ordered  that  Wequash  shall  have  a  suit 


344  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

of  clothes  made  at  the  town's  charge."  As  this  was 
but  a  few  months  before  his  death,  and  during  that 
year  and  a  half  which  he  spent  in  going  up  and  down 
preaching  to  the  Indians,  it  may  be  conjectured  that  it 
was  in  reward  for  such  evangelistic  labor  expended  on 
the  red  men  of  Quinnipiac.  But  if  such  were  the 
occasion  of  the  gift,  why  should  it  not  appear  on  the 
record  ?  More  probably  it  was  for  information  in 
regard  to  Indian  conspiracies ;  for,  nine  months  after 
this  gift  to  Wequash,  and  only  one  month  after  his 
decease,  a  friendly  sagamore  came  to  Mr.  Ludlow  at 
Fairfield,  as  he  worked. in  his  hayfield,  and  discovered 
a  plot,  .desiring  "a  promise  that  his  name  might  be 
concealed ;  for,  if  it  were  known,  it  would  cost  him  his 
life,  and  he  should  be  served  as  Wequash  was  for  being 
so  faithful  to  the  English."  Promise  of  concealment 
was  made,  and  he  related  what  he  knew  concerning 
the  plot  in  which  Miantinomoh  was  concerned.  It  de- 
signed, first,  the  assassination  of  Uncas,  and  then  a 
general  and  simultaneous  massacre  of  the  English. 
"  As  soon  as  the  sabbath  was  past,  Mr.  Ludlow  rode 
to  New  Haven,  and  there  intended  to  take  advice  with 
them,  and  so  to  proceed  to  Connecticut.  But  when  he 
came  to  New  Haven,  and  procured  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr. 
Goodyear,  and  Mr.  Davenport,  to  give  him  meeting, 
and  opened  things  unto  them,  they  presently  declared 
there  was  an  Indian  from  Long  Island  that  had  declared 
the  same  to  them  vetbatim^  '  If  this  testimony  be 
trustworthy,  it  would  seem  that  the  death  of  Wequash 
was  the  first  fruits  of  a  plot  which  intended  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  English,  and  of  their  Indian  allies. 

*  Relation  of  the  Indian  plot    Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXIII.  p.  i6i. 


THE  ABORIGINES,  345 

The  reader  may  form  some  idea  of  Wequash's  ward- 
robe, when  he  learns,  that,  two  months  prevjous  to  the 
gift  of  the  English  clothes  by  New  Haven,  he  received 
from  Mr  Whitfield,  in  payment  for  his  land  in  Guilford, 
"a  frieze  coat,  a  blanket,  an  Indian  coat,  one  fathom 
of  Dutchman's  coat,  a  shirt,  a  pair  of  stockings,  a  pair  of 
shoes,  a  fathom  of  wampum."    . 

The  story  of  Wequash  naturally  leads  to  an  account  of 
efforts  within  the  colony  of  New  Haven  for  the  civiliza- 
tion and  evangelization  of  the  aborigines.  Wequash 
was  described  on  his  tombstone  at  Lyme  as  the  first 
convert  among  the  New  England  tribes  ;  but  this  state- 
ment seems  to  have  been  made  by  one  imperfectly 
informed  in  regard  to  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts. 
Palfrey  mentions  by  name  several  Indians  of  whom 
English  Christians  in  those  colonies  entertained,  at 
an  earlier  date,  "good  hopes  in  their  hearts.*'  The 
success  of  the  evangelistic  work  of  Eliot  and  the  May- 
hews  in  Massachusetts,  a  few  years  after  the  death  of 
Wequash,  enkindled  such  interest  in  the  mother  country 
that  a  corporation  was  created  by  act  of  Parliament, 
"for  the  promoting  and  propagating  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  New  England."  Its  charter  directed 
that  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  of 
New  England,  or  such  as  they  should  appoint,  should 
have  power  to  receive  and  dispose  of  the  moneys 
brought  in  "in  such  manner  as  should  best  and  prin- 
cipally conduce  to  the  preaching  and  propagating  of 
the  gospel  amongst  the  natives,  and  the  maintenance 
of  schools  and  nurseries  of  learning  for  the  education 
of  the  children  of  the  natives."     The  funds  thus  pro- 


346  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

vided  were  chiefly  expended  in  the  older  colonies ;  but, 
in  Connecticut,  Mr.  Blinman,  the  minister  of  New 
London,  and  in  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  Mr.  Pier^ 
son,  the  minister  of  Branford,  were  employed  by  this 
corporation.  The  efforts  of  Mr.  Fitch  of  Norwich  to 
instruct  his  heathen  neighbors  have  been  already  men- 
tioned. "The  ministers  of  the  several  towns  where 
Indians  lived,"  says  Trumbull,  "instructed  them  as 
they  had  opportunity  ;  but  all  attempts  for  Christian- 
izing the  Indians  in  Connecticut  were  attended  with 
little  success.  They  were  engaged  a  great  part  of 
their  time  in  such  implacable  wars  among  themselves, 
were  so  ignorant  of  letters  and  the  English  language, 
and  the  English  ministers  in  general  were  so  entirely 
ignorant  of  their  dialect,  that  it  was  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  teach  them.  Not  one  Indian  church  was  ever 
gathered  by  the  English  ministers  in  Connecticut. 
Several  Indians,  however,  in  one  town  and  another, 
became  Christians,  and  were  baptized  and  admitted  to 
full  communion  in  the  English  churches."  This  testi- 
mony of  Trumbull  was  intended  to  cover  the  territory 
which  had  belonged  to  the  colony  of  New  Haven  as  truly 
as  the  other  part  of  Connecticut.  Of  the  ministers  of 
the  New  Haven  colony,  Mr.  Pierson  seems  to  have  been 
most  proficient  in  the  Indian  tongue;  he  "and  his  In- 
dian" being  employed  as  interpreters  in  the  negotia- 
tion of  important  business.  He  preached  to  the  red 
men  in  their  own  language,  and  commenced  to  pre- 
pare a  catechism,  a  part  of  which  being  submitted  to 
the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  at  their 
meeting,  in  1656,  they  advised  that  it  be  completed, 
and  "  turned  into  the  Narraganset  or  Pequot,  and  for 


THE  ABORIGINES,  347 

that  purpose  they  spake  with  and  desired  Thomas 
Stanton  to  advise  with  Mr.  Pierson  about  a  fit  season 
to  meet  and  translate  the  same."  Mr.  Pierson,  dis- 
pleased at  the  absorption  of  New  Haven  by  Connecti- 
cut, removed  out  of  the  colony.  Perhaps  a  few  years 
more  of  perseverance  might  have  produced  a  much 
greater  result,  and  brought  to  view  some  fruits  of  the 
labor  expended,  which,  by  reason  of  its  untimely  ces- 
sation, have  remained  unknown. 

But,  though  comparatively  little  was  accomplished  by 
preaching  to  the  Indians  in  their  own  tongue,  many 
youth,  being  received  into  English  families,  were  in- 
structed as  if  they  had  been  bom  in  the  house ;  so  that 
after  a  few  years  from  the  beginning,  there  were  civil- 
ized and  Christian  Indians  living  among  the  English, 
speaking  English,  wearing  English  cloth,  owning  land, 
following  trades,  and  frequenting  the  public  assemblies 
on  the  Lord's  day. 


s 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

DOMESTIC   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

IN  a  former  chapter  the  mansion  of  Gov.  Eaton  has 
been  described  with  nearly  as  much  of  detail  as 
it  is  now  possible  to  give.  The  fame  of  three  other' 
houses,  as  handed  down  by  tradition,  has  also  been 
mentioned.  President  Stiles  relates,  on  the  authority 
of  one  of  the  mechanics  who  demolished  the  Allerton 
house,  that  the  wood  was  all  of  oak,  and  of  the  best 
joiner-work.  Ranking  next  to  these  four  were  other 
houses  of  framed  timber,  smaller  and  less  stately,  but 
equal  and  similar  to  the  ordinary  dwelling-house  of  the 
seventeenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
turj",  a  few  specimens  of  which  still  remain  in  almost 
every  ancient  town.  In  shape  they  differed  one  from 
another  as  old  houses  differ  in  the  same  neighborhood 
in  England;  but  they  probably  were  copies,  in  inost 
cases,  of  some  style  of  house  prevalent  in  the  county 
or  parish  where  the  emigrant  had  been  born.  Com- 
monly they  had  two  stories,  though  some,  being  in  the 
lean-to  shape,  showed  a  second  story  only  in  front. 
Often  the  second  story  projected  over  the  first ;  and  this 
style,  though  not  devised  for  such  an  end,  but  copied 
from  numerous  examples  in  the  mother  country,  was 
regarded  as  especially  convenient  for  defensive  warfare 
348 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL   LIFE. 


349 


against  savage  foes.  Lower  in  rank  than  these  framed 
buildings  were  log  houses,  which,  when  small  and  built 
with  Utile  expenditure  of  joiner-work,  were  called  huts 
rather  than  houses  j  as  on  a  western  prairie  a  log  cabin 
is  even  now  distinguished  from  a  log  house. 

In  Guilford  several  dwellings,  as  well  as  the  meeting- 
house, were  built  of  stone. 
In  the  summer  of  1651 
the  record  was  made, 
"The  meeting-house  ap-  , 
pointed  to  be  thatched  ' 
and  clayed  before  win- 
ter." This  order  indi- 
cates that  the  stone  was 
not  laid  in  mortar,  but,  as  many  stone  chimneys  which 
have  lasted  to  our  time,  in  clay.  In  the  course  of  years 
the  clay  had  fallen  out,  and  the  walls,  that  they  might 
exclude  the  cold  winds  of  winter,  needed  to  be  again 
pointed  with  this  substi- 
tute for  mortar.  The 
order  to  thatch,  shows 
that  in  Guilford,  if  not  in 
the  other  plantations,  a 
thatched  roof  was  thought 
worthy  to  cover  their 
most  honored  edifices. 
Among  the  dwellings  in  Guilford  which  were  built  of 
stone,  was  that  of  Mr.  Whitfield,  the  minister.  It  is 
mentioned  by  Palfrey,  in  his  "  History  of  New  Eng- 
land" as  "the  oldest  house  in  the  United  States  now 
standing  as  originally  built,  unless  there  be  older  at  St. 
Augustine  in  Florida."     Since  the  publication  of  Mr, 


350  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Palfrey's  History,  great  changes  have  been  wrought  in 
the  appearance  and  internal  arrangement  of  the  house, 
but  it  still  preserves  an  aspect  of  antiquity.  The  fol- 
lowing description,  with  the  accompanying  plans,  was 
furnished  to  Mr.  Palfrey  by  Mr.  Ralph  D.  Smith  of 
Guilford :  — 

"The  walls  are  of  stone,  from  a  ledge  eighty  rods 
distant  to  the  east.  It  was  probably  brought  on  hand- 
barrows,  across  a  swamp,  over  a  rude  causey  which  is 
still  to  be  traced.  A  small  addition,  not  here  repre- 
sented, has  in  modem  times  been  made  to  the  back  of 
the  house ;  but  there  is  no  question  that  the  main  build- 
ing remains  in  its  original  state,  even  to  the  oak  of  the 
beams,  floors,  doors,  and  window-sashes.  The  following 
representations  of  the  interior  exhibit  accurately  the 
dimensions  of  the  rooms,  windows,  and  doors,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  walls,  &c.,  on  a  scale  of  ten  feet  to  the 
inch.«  The  single  dotted  lines  represent  fireplaces  and 
doors.  The  double  dotted  lines  represent  windows. 
In  the  recesses  of  the  windows  are  broad  seats.  With- 
in the  memory  of  some  of  the  residents  of  the  town, 
the  panes  of  glass  were  of  diamond  shape. 

"  The  height  of  the  first  story  is  seven  feet  and  two- 
thirds.  The  height  of  the  second  is  six  feet  and  three- 
quarters.  At  the  southerly  corner  in  the  second  story 
there  was  originally  an  embrasure,  about  a  foot  wide, 
with  a  stone  flooring,  which  still  remains.  The  exterior 
walls  are  now  closed  up,  but  not  the  walls  within. 

"  The  walls  of  the  front  and  back  of  the  house  termi- 
nate at  the  floor  of  the  attic,  and  the  rafters  lie  upon 

'  In  this  volume  the  horizontal  sections  of  the  house  are  reduced  in 
size,  so  that  the  scale  is  twenty  feet  to  the  inch. 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE. 


351 


them.  The  angle  of  the  roof  is  60**,  making  the  base 
and  sides  equal.  At  the  end  of  the  wing,  by  the  chim- 
ney, is  a  recess,  which  must  have  been  intended  as  a 


FIRST  FLOOR. 


SECOND  FLOOR. 


place  of  concealment.  The  interior  wall  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  touching  the  chimney,  like  the  wall  at  the 
north-west  end ;  but  the  removal  of  a  board  discovers 
two  closets,  which  project  beyond  the  lower  part  of  the 
building.** 

The  Whitfield  house  dif- 
fered from  the  typical  New 
England  dwelling,  both  in  the 
material  of  which  it  was  built, 
and  in  its  interior  arrange- 
ment. Houses  were  usually 
supported,  not  by  walls  of 
stone,  but  by  frames  of  heavy 
timber.  White  oak  was  a  fa- 
vorite wood  for  this  purpose,  and  some  of  the  larger 
pieces  were  considerably  more  than  a  foot  square.  Mr. 
Whitfield,  though  he  was  a  man  of  wealth,  had  no  more 
apartments  in  his  dwelling  than  the  average  New  Eng- 


ATTIC  FLOOR. 


352  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

land  planter.  It  is  not  easy  to  conjecture  where  he  had 
his  study,  nor  where  he  lodged  his  ten  children,  some 
of  whom  were  nearly  or  quite  adult  when  he  came  to 
Guilford.  His  house  seems  small  for  the  requirements 
of  his  family  and  of  his  calling,  and  surprisingly  small 
in  contrast  with  that  of  the  minister  of  New  Haven. 
Mr.  Davenport  had  but  one  child ;  but  there  were  thir- 
teen fireplaces  in  his  house,  while  in  Mr.  Whitfield's 
there  were  but  five. 

A  framed  house  not  exceeding  that  of  Mr.  Whit- 
field in  its  dimensions,  would  have  but  one  chimney, 
which  would  be  in  the  middle  of  the  house,  and  not  in 
the  outer  wall,  as  in  a  house  of  stone.  Such  a  chimney 
measured  about  ten  feet  in  diameter  where  it  passed 
through  the  first  floor,  being  even  larger  in  the  cellar 
and  tapering  as  it  ascended  ;  the  fire-place  in  one  of  the 
apartments  of  the  first  floor  being  six  or  eight  feet 
long.  A  door  in  the  middle  of  the  front  side  of  the 
house  opened  into  a  hall,  which  contained  the  principal 
stairway  on  the  side  opposite  to  the  entrance,  and 
opened  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left  into  front 
rooms  used  as  parlors,  but  furnished,  one  or  both  of 
them,  with  beds,  which,  if  not  commonly  in  use,  stood 
ready  to  answer  such  drafts  upon  hospitality  as  are  fre- 
quent in  a  new  countrj',  \yhere  all  travelling  is  by 
private  conveyance.  The  apartment  most  used  by  the 
family,  in  which  they  cooked  and  ate  their  food  and, 
in  winter,  gathered  about  the  spacious  fireplace,  was  in 
the  rear  of  the  chimney.  At  one  end  of  it  was  a  small 
bed-room,  and  at  the  other,  a  butter}'. 

The  frame  of  such  a  house  was  covered  with  clap- 
boards or  with  shingles,  and,  after  a  little  experience,  the 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  353 

planters  learned  to  prefer  cedar  shingles  to  perishable 
and  inflammable  thatch  as  a  covering  for  the  roof.  The 
floors  were  of  thick  oak  boards,  fastened  with  wooden 
pins.  The  rooms  were  plastered  only  on  the  sides, 
the  joists  and  floor  above  being  exposed  to  view.  In 
the  parlors,  the  side  contiguous  to  the  chimney  was 
usually  wainscoted,  and  thus  displayed  wide  panels 
from  the  largest  trees  of  the  primeval  forest.  The 
window-sashes,  bearing  glass  cut  into  small  diamond- 
shaped  panes,  and  set  with  lead,  were  hung  with  hinges 
to  the  window-frames,  and  opened  outward.  The  doors 
were  of  upright  boards,  fastened  together  with  battens, 
and  had  wooden  latches.  The  outside  doors  were  made 
of  two  layers  of  board,  one  upright  and  one  transverse, 
fastened  together  with  clinched  nails  so  arranged  as  to 
cover  the  door  with  diamond-shaped  figures  of  equal 
dimension.  The  front  door  was  made  in  two  valves, 
which,  when  closed,  met  in  the  middle,  and  were  fast- 
ened in  that  position  by  a  wooden  bar,  placed  across 
from  one  lintel  to  the  other,  and  secured  by  iron  staples. 
Farm-houses  were  commonly  built  near  a  spring, 
which  supplied  water  for  domestic  use,  as  well  as  for  the 
cattle.  If  a  well  was  dug,  either  in  town  or  in  country, 
the  water  was  drawn  from  it  by  means  of  a  sweep 
moving  vertically  on  a  fulcrum  at  the  top  of  a  post. 
From  the  lighter  end  of  the  well-sweep  a  smaller  pole 
or  rod,  with  a  bucket  attached,  was  suspended.  When 
the  bucket  had  been  lowered  and  dipped,  the  sweep 
was  so  nearly  poised  that  the  water  could  be  drawn 
up  with  little  effort.  The  following  record  shows  that 
pumps  were  not  unknown :  "  Robert  Johnson  desired 
that  he  might  have  liberty  to  make  a  well  in  the  street 


354  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

near  his  house.  The  Court,  fearing  some  danger  might 
come  by  it,  propounded  that  he,  and  his  neighbors 
joining  with  him,  would  put  a  pump  in  it ;  whereupon  he 
took  time  to  speak  with  them,  and  consider  of  it."  This 
was  in  1649.  Six  years  afterward,  when  the  younger 
Winthrop  was  expected  to  spend  the  winter  in  New 
Haven,  Mr.  Davenport  writes  to  him  that  Mrs.  Daven- 
port had  taken  care  of  his  apples,  had  provided  twenty 
loads  of  wood,  thirty  bushels  of  wheat,  fifty  pounds 
of  candles,  tables,  and  some  chairs,  and  a  cleanly, 
thrifty  maid-servant  for  Mrs.  Winthrop,  and  had  caused 
the  well  to  be  cleaned,  and  a  new  pump  to  be  set  up. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  as  compared  with  the 
present  day,  household  furniture  was  rude  and  scanty, 
even  in  England ;  and  doubtless  emigration  to  a  new 
country  deprived  the  planters  of  New  England  of  some 
domestic  conveniences  which  they  might  have  pos- 
sessed if  they  had  remained  at  home.  A  few  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  in  New  Haven  had  tapestry 
hangings  in  their  principal  apartments ;  and  Gov.  Eaton 
had,  in  addition  to  such  luxuries,  two  Turkey  carpets, 
a  tapestry  carpet,  a  green  carpet  fringed,  and  a  small 
green  carpet,  besides  rugs ;  but  the  mansion  of  a  planter 
who  had  been  a  London  merchant  is  no  more  fit  to  be 
taken  as  a  fair  specimen  of  contemporary  dwellings  than 
the  hut  in  which  the  pit-man  in  a  saw-pit  sheltered  his 
family.  The  floors  in  the  house  of  a  planter  whom  his 
neighbors  called  "  Goodman,"  and  generally  in  the 
houses  of  men  to  whose  names  the  title  of  Mr.  was  pre- 
fixed, were  bare  of  carpets.  Excepting  the  beds,  which 
stood  in  so  many  of  the  apartments,  the  most  conspicu- 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  355 

ous  and  costly  piece  of  furniture  in  the  house  was,  per- 
haps, a  tall  case  of  drawers  in  the  parlor.  It  was  called 
a  case  of  drawers,  and  not  a  bureau ;  for  at  that  time  a 
writing-board  was  a  principal  feature  of  a  bureau.  If, 
as  was  sometimes  the  case,  there  were  drawers  in  the 
lower  part,  and  a  chest  at  the  top,  it  was  called  a  chest 
of  drawers.  This  form,  being  in  itself  less  expensive, 
received  less  of  ornament,  and  was  to  be  found  even 
in  the  cottages  of  the  poor.  Still  another  form  had 
drawers  below  and  doors  above,  which,  being  opened, 
revealed  small  drawers  for  the  preservation  of  important 
papers  or  other  articles  of  value.  This  form  was  some- 
times called  a  cabinet.  After  the  death  of  Gov.  Eaton 
"  there  was  found  in  his  cabinet  a  paper  fairly  written 
with  his  own '  hand,  and  subscribed  also  with  his  own 
hand,  having  his  seal  also  thereunto  affixed,"  which 
was  accepted  as  his  last  will  and  testament,  "though 
not  testified  by  any  witnesses,  nor  subscribed  by  any 
hands  as  witnesses.*'  The  inventory  of  Gov.  Eaton 
does  not  mention  a  cabinet,  but  specifies  among  the 
items  "in  the  green  chamber,"  which  was  evidently 
the  most  elegant  of  his  apartments,  a  cupboard  with 
drawers.  This  was  doubtless,  under  a  more  homely 
name,  the  same  piece  of  furniture,  which^  in  the  pro- 
bate record,  is  called  a  cabinet. 

The  inventory  of  Gov.  Eaton  makes  no  mention  of  a 
clock,  and  probably  there  was  none  in  the  colony  of 
New  Haven  while  he  lived,  unless  his  friend  Davenport 
had  so  early  become  the  possessor  of  the  "clock  with 
appurtenances,"  which,  after  the  death  of  its  owner, 
was  appraised  at  ;f  5. 

At  a  later  date  a  clock  outranked  the  case  of  drawers 


3S6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

however  elegant,  by  its  greater  rarity  and  greater  cost. 
For  a  long  time  after  their  first  appearance,  clocks 
were  to  be  found  only  in  the  dwellings  of  the  opulent, 
the  generality  of  the  people  measuring  time  by  noon- 
marks  and  sun-dials. 

Table  furniture,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  present 
day,  was  especially  scanty.  Forks  were  not  in  common 
use  in  England  till  after  the  union  of  New  Haven  with 
Connecticut,  though,  as  Palfrey  suggests,  there  was  a 
very  liberal  supply  of  napkins  as  if  fingers  were  some- 
times used  for  forks.  Spoons  used  by  families  of  the 
middle  class  were  commonly  of  a  base  metal  called 
alchymy,  though  some  such  families  had  a  few  spoons 
of  silver.  But  if  silver  ware  was  not  in  general  use, 
families  of  opulence  seem  to  have  been  well  supplied 
with  it.  Gov.  Eaton  had,  including  the  basin  and  ewer 
presented  to  Mrs.  Eaton  by  the  Eastland  Fellowship, 
;f  140  worth  of  plate.  Mr.  Davenport's  plate  was  ap- 
praised at  ;f  so.  One  of  the  items  was  a  silver  tankard, 
still  preserved  in  the  family.' 

Table-dishes  were  generally  of  wood  or  of  pewter, 
though  China  and  earthen  ware  are  specified  in  the 
inventory  of  Mr.  Davenport's  estate.  Vessels  of  glass 
are  also  sometimes  mentioned  in  inventories.  Drink- 
ing-vessels,  called  cans,  were  cups  of  glass,  silver,  or 
pewter,  with  bandies  attached  to  them.  Porringers 
were  small,  bowl-shaped  vessels,  for  holding  the  porridge 
commonly  served  for  breakfast  or  supper.  Usually 
they  were  of  pewter  and  supplied  with  handles.  Meat 
was  brought  to  the  table  on  platters  of  pewter  or  of 

*  An  engraving  of  it  may  be  seen  in  "  The  Davenport  Family,"  by  A. 
B.  Davenport,  Supplementary  Edition,  p.  404. 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  357 

wood,  and  from  these  was  transferred  to  wooden 
trenchers ;  which,  in  their  cheapest  form,  were  square 
pieces  of  board,  but  often  were  cut  by  the  lathe  into 
the  circular  shape  of  their  porcelain  successors.* 

In  all  but  the  most  wealthy  families,  food  was  cooked 
in  the  apartment  where  it  was  eaten,  and  at  the  large 
fireplace,  which  by  its  size  distinguished  the  most  fre- 
quented apartment  of  the  house.  A  trammel  in  the 
chimney,  by  means  of  its  hook,  which  could  be  moved 
up  or  down  according  to  the  amount  of  fuel  in  use  at 
the  time,  held  the  pot  or  kettle  at  the  proper  distance 
above  the  fire.  At  one  end  of  the  fireplace  was  an 
oven  in  the  chimney.  Supplementary  to  these  instru- 
ments for  boiling  and  baking  were  a  gridiron,  a  long- 
handled  frying-pan,  and  a  spit  for  roasting  before  the 
fire.  At  the  end  of  the  room,  pewter  platters,  por- 
ringers, and  basins,  when  not  in  use,  were  displayed  on 
open  shelves ;  and  hanging  against  the  wide  panels  of 
the  wainscot  were  utensils  of  tin  and  brass,  the  bright- 
ness of  the  metals  showing  forth  the  comparative  merit 
of  the  housekeeping.  The  brass-ware  included  such 
articles  as  the  ladle,  the  skimmer,  the  colander,  and  the 
warming-pan. 

The  diet  of  the  planters  necessarily  consisted  chiefly 

*  Persons  are  still  living,  who  can  remember  when  wooden  trenchers 
were  in  general  use  in  England,  instead  of  the  porcelain  plates  which  even 
the  poorest  householder  now  provides.  A  middle-aged  farmer  in  Sussex 
told  me  that  in  his  childhood  trenchers  were  more  common  than  plates, 
and  pointed  out  a  mill  where  the  trenchers  were  turned ;  and  I  have  re- 
cently seen  in  a  newspaper  an  account,  by  a  living  graduate  of  the  Wyke- 
ham  School  at  Winchester,  of  the  table  fare  in  that  school  when  he  was  a 
boy,  in  which  he  says  that  they  ate  on  square  trenchers. 


3S8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

of  domestic  products,  though  commerce,  as  we  have 
seen,  supplied  the  tables  of  the  wealthy  with  sugar, 
foreign  fruits,  and  wines.  Kine  and  sheep  were  few 
during  the  early  years  of  the  colony,  but  there  was  such 
an  abundance  and  variety  of  game  that  the  scarcity  of 
beef  and  mutton  was  but  a  small  inconvenience.*  In 
towns,  venison  brought  in  by  English  or  Indian  hunters 
was  usually  to  be  obtained  of  the  truck-master ;  and  at 
the  farms,  wild  geese,  wild  turkeys,  moose,  and  deer, 
were  the  prizes  of  the  sharp-shooter.  The  air  in  spring 
and  autumn  was  sometimes  perceptibly  'darkened  with 
pigeons  ;  the  rivers  were  full  of  fish ;  on  the  sea-shore 
there  was  plenty  of  clams,  oysters,  and  mussels.  Poul- 
try and  swine  soon  multiplied  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  could  be  used  for  the  table  ;  and  within  ten  years 
from  the  foundation  of  New  Haven,  beef  had  become  an 
article  of  export.  The  abundance  of  game,  of  pork, 
and  of  poultry,  doubtless  hastened  the  exportation  of 
this  commodity.  Tillage  produced  besides  the  maize, 
the  beans,  and  the  squashes,  indigenous  to  the  countr}', 
almost  every  variety  of  food  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  in  England. 

The  diet  for  breakfast  and  supper  was  frequently  por- 
ridge made  of  meat,  sometimes  salt  meat,  and  of  pease, 
beans,  or  other  vegetables.  Frequently  it  was  mush 
and  milk.  A  boiled  pudding  of  Indian  meal,  cooked  in 
the  same  pot  with  the  meat  and  vegetables  which  fol- 
lowed it,  was  often  the  first  and  principal  course  at 

*  Winthrop,  before  his  wife  came  out,  writes  to  her,  "  We  are  here  in 
a  paradise.  Though  we  have  not  beef  and  mutton,  yet  (God  be  praised) 
we  want  them  not :  our  Indian  com  answers  for  all.  Yet  here  is  fowl  and 
fish  in  great  plenty." 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE,  359 

dinner.  It  seems  to  have  been  assigned  to  the  first 
course  in  the  interest  of  frugality,  to  spare  the  more 
expensive  pork  and  beef.  Of  esculent  roots  the  turnip 
was  far  more  highly  prized  and  plentifully  used  than  the 
potato.  Tea  and  coffee  had  not  yet  come  into  general 
use  so  as  to  be  articles  of  commerce  even  in  England, 
but  beer  was  the  common  drink  of  Englishmen  at 
home  and  in  America.  A  brew-house  was  regarded  as 
an  essential  part  of  a  homestead  in  the  New  Haven 
colony,  and  beer  was  on  the  table  as  regularly  as 
bread.* 

While  the  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper,  described 
above,  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  the  diet  fre- 
quently appearing  on  the  table  of  a  New  England  fam- 
ily in  the  seventeenth  century,  they  are  by  no  means  to 
be  regarded  as  a  rule  from  which  there  was  no  varia- 
tion. There  were  flesh-days  and  there  were  fish-days  in 
every  week ;  and  on  Saturday,  the  oven  being  heated  for 
baking  bread,  a  pot  of  beans  was  put  in,  which,  being 
allowed  to  remain  for  twenty-four  hours,  furnished  a 
warm  supper  for  the  family  when  they  returned  from 
public  worship.  There  was  variation  from  and  addi- 
tion to  the  ordinary  fare  on  those  numerous  occasions 
when  friends,  travelling  on  horseback,  stopped  to  spend 
the  night,  or  to  rest  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  Then 
the  table  was  burdened  with  variety  and  abundance 
according  to  the  means  of  the  family  and  the  provi- 

'  New  Haven  Town  Records,  Dec  i,  1662.  "Deacon  Peck  informed 
the  town  that  they  were  much  troubled  to  supply  the  elders  with  wheat 
and  malt,  and  he  feared  there  was  want :  therefore  desired  the  town  to 
consider  of  it  The  deputy-governor  urged  it  that  men  would  endeavor 
to  make  a  present  supply  for  them.** 


36o  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

dence  of  the  mistress.  Feasting  reached  its  acme  on 
the  day  of  the  annual  thanksgiving,  when  there  was 
such  plenty  of  roast  meats,  and  so  extraordinary  an 
outcome  from  the  oven,  that  ordinary  diet  was  for  some 
days  afterward  displaced  by  the  remains  of  the  feast. 

No  picture  of  domestic  life  in  New  England  could 
be  complete  which  did  not  exhibit  the  family  observing 
the  annual  thanksgiving.  Rejecting  Christmas  because 
of  the  superstitions  which  had  attached  themselves  to 
it,  the  Puritans  established  in  its  place  another  festival, 
which  became  equally  domestic  in  the  manner  of  its 
obser\'^ance.  Children  who  had  left  their  parents  to 
prepare  for  the  duties  of  adult  life,  or  to  occupy  homes 
which  they  themselves  had  established,  were  gathered 
again  in  the  home  of  their  nativity,  or  under  the  roof 
of  those  whom  they  had  learned  since  they  were 
married  to  call  father  and  mother.  Here  they  re- 
counted the  blessings  of  the  year,  and  united  in  giving 
thanks  to  God.  If  there  were  children's  children,  they 
came  with  their  parents,  and  spent  the  hours  which 
remained  after  worship  in  feasting  and  frolic. 

Family  worship  was  an  important  feature  of  domestic 
life  in  a  Puritan  household.  It  was  important  because 
of  its  frequency,  regularity,  and  seriousness.  When- 
ever the  family  came  to  the  table  for  breakfast,  dinner, 
or  supper,  there  was  a  grace  before  meat,  and  when 
they  left  it,  a  grace  after  meat,  every  person  standing 
by  his  chair  while  the  blessing  was  asked,  and  the 
thanks  were  given.  The  day  was  begun  with  worship, 
which  included  the  reading  of  Scripture  and  prayer, 
and  ended  with  a  similar  service,  all  standing  during  the 
prayer.     A  member  of  Gov.  Eaton's  family  reports  :  — 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  36 1 

"It  was  his  custom,  when  he  first  rose  in  a  morning,  to  repair 
unto  his  study ;  a  study  well  perfumed  with  the  meditations  and 
supplications  of  a  holy  soul.  After  this,  calling  his  family  together, 
he  would  then  read  a  portion  of  the  Scripture  among  them,  and  after 
some  devout  and  useful  reflections  upon  it,  he  would  make  a  prayer 
not  long,  but  extraordinarily  pertinent  and  reverent ;  and  in  the 
evening  some  of  the  same  exercises  were  again  attended.  On  the 
Saturday  morning  he  would  still  take  notice  of  the  approaching 
sabbath  in  his  prayer,  and  ask  the  grace  to  be  remembering  of  it 
and  preparing  for  it ;  and  when  the  evening  arrived,  he,  besides 
this,  not  only  repeated  a  sermon,  but  also  instructed  his  people 
with  putting  of  questions  referring  to  the  points  of  religion,  which 
would  oblige  them  to  study  for  an  answer ;  and  if  their  answer 
were  at  any  time  insufficient,  he  would  wisely  and  gently  enlighten 
their  understanding ;  all  which  he  concluded  by  singing  a  psalm." 


In  the  New  Haven  colony,  the  Lord's  day  began, 
according  to  the  Hebrew  manner  of  reckoning,  at  sun- 
set. Saturday  was  the  preparation  day.  The  diet  for 
the  morrow  was  made  ready  so  far  as  was  possible,  and 
the  house  was  put  in  order.  The  kitchen  floor  received 
its  weekly  scrubbing,  and  the  floor  of  the  parlor  was 
sprinkled  anew  with  the  white  sand  from  the  sea-shore. 
Before  the  sun  had  disappeared  beneath  the  western 
horizon,  the  ploughmen  had  returned  from  the  fields ; 
the  mistress  and  her  maids  had  brought  the  house-work 
to  a  stop.  Because  "  the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  first  day  "  they  began  their  sabbath  observance  at 
evening.  It  was  because  Saturday  evening  was  a  part 
of  the  Lord's  day  that  the  master  of  a  house  added  to 
the  usual  family  worship  some  endeavor  to  impart 
religious  instruction  to  his  children  and  servants. 

New  Haven  retained  its  custom  of  beginning  the 
Lord's  day  at  evening,  through  the  seventeenth  and 


362  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

eighteenth  centuries.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
disadvantages  of  the  custom,  they  were  of  a  worldly, 
and  not  of  a  spiritual,  nature.  Perhaps  less  labor  was 
accomplished ;  though  it  admits  of  question  whether 
the  subtraction  of  an  hour  or  two  from  the  work-time 
of  Saturday  did  not  by  a  more  thorough  restoration  of 
strength  to  the  laborer  increase  rather  than  diminish 
the  labor  accomplished.  There  can  be  no  question  that 
the  New  Haven  custom  was  more  favorable  to  the  reli- 
gious improvement  of  the  Lord's  day  than  that,  which, 
by  exacting  extra  hours  of  labor  on  Saturday,  occasions 
unusual  fatigue  at  the  end  of  the  week.  It  is  also  indis- 
putable that  the  New  Haven  custom  exerted  a  refining 
influence  by  means  of  the  social  intercourse  on  Sunday 
evening,  for  which  it  afforded  opportunity.  Every 
house  was  then  dressed ;  and  every  person,  even  if 
obliged  on  other  days  to  delve  and  drudge,  was  in  his 
best  apparel.  Sunday  in  the  New  Haven  colony  was 
at  once  a  holy  day  and  a  holiday,  the  Puritan  restraint 
with  which  it  was  kept  till  sunset  giving  place  in  the 
evening  to  recreation  and  social  converse. 

Though  young  men  were  by  law  forbidden  "  to  invei- 
gle or  draw  the  affections  of  any  maid  .without  the  con- 
sent of  father,  master,  guardian,  governor,  or  such  other 
who  hath  the  present  interest  or  charge,  or,  in  the 
absence  of  such,  of  the  nearest  magistrate,  whether  it 
be  by  speech,  writing,  message,  company-keeping,  un- 
necessary familiarity,  disorderly  night-meetings,  sinful 
dalliance,  gifts,"  or  any  other  way,  yet  every  respect- 
able young  man  knew  of  some  house  where  he  might 
meet  on  Sunday  evening  one  of  the  maidens  whom 
he  had  seen  in  the  opposite  gallery  of  the  meeting- 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  363 

house,  without  fear  that  her  father,  master,  guardian, 
or  governor  would  be  displeased 

The  marriages  which  resulted  from  these  Sunday 
evening  visits  of  the  young  men,  were  not  solemnized 
by  a  minister  of  religion,  but,  according  to  the  Puritan 
view  of  propriety,  by  a  magistrate.*  The  requirement 
that  marriage  should  be  contracted  before  an  officer  of 
the  civil  authority,  was  a  protest  against  the  position 
that  marriage  is  a  sacrament  of  the  church.  It  is  said 
that  the  first  marriage  in  Guilford  was  celebrated  in  the 
famous  mansion  of  the  minister,  "the  wedding  table 
being  garnished  with  the  substantial  luxuries  of  pork 
and  pease."  Probably  this  was  the  marriage  of  the 
pastor's  daughter  to  Rev.  John  Higginson.  But  though 
the  bride  was  his  own  daughter,  Mr.  Whitfield  had  no 
legal  authority  to  pronounce  the  couple  husband  and 
wife.  Clandestine  marriage  was  carefully  prevented  by 
the  requirement  that  the  intention  of  the  parties  should 
be  three  times  published  at  some  time  of  public  lecture 
or  town  meeting,  or  "  be  set  up  in  writing  upon  some 
post  of  their  meeting-house  door,  in  public  view,  there 
to  stand  so  as  it  may  be  easily  read,  by  the  space  of 
fourteen  days.'*  Although  the  same  statute  required 
that  the  marriage  should  be  in  "a  public  place,"  this 
requirement  was  sufficiently  answered  when  specta- 
tors were  present ;  and  usually  marriages  were  solemn- 
ized at  the  home  of  the  bride,  and  accompanied,  as  in 
the  Whitfield  mansion,  with  feasting. 

'  I  have  seen  a  parish  register  in  England  where  for  a  century  all 
marriages  are  recorded  as  solemnized  by  the  clergyman;  then, without  a 
word  of  explanation,  all  marriages  for  several  years  are  recorded  as  con- 
tracted before  a  justice  of  the  peace ;  then,  without  explanation, the  record 
returns  to  its  old  formula.  Marriage  by  a  magistrate  marks  the  time  of 
the  commonwealth. 


364  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

A  marriage  implied  a  new  home,  —  perhaps  a  farm  to 
be  cut  out  of  the  primeval  forest,  and  a  house  to  be 
built  with  lumber  yet  in  the  log.  A  portion  of  the 
work  had  preceded  the  marriage,  but  a  life-long  task 
remained.  The  people  were  generally  frugal  and  in- 
dustrious,  and  the  women  in  their  sphere  were  as  truly 
so  as  the  men.  The  mistress,  and  her  maids  if  she  had 
them,  were  as  busy  in  the  house  as  the  master  and  his 
servants  in  the  fields.  Besides  the  house-work,  the 
dairy-work,  the  sewing,  and  the  knitting,  there  was 
everywhere  spinning,  and  in  some  houses  weaving. 
They  spun  cotton,  linen,  and  wool.  New  Haven  prob- 
ably had  in  its  Yorkshire  families  special  skill  in  the 
manufacture  of  cloth.  Johnson,  speaking  in  his  "  Won- 
der Working  Providenge  "  of  that  part  of  Mr.  Rogers's 
company  which  began  a  settlement  in  Massachusetts 
and  called  it  Rowley  after  the  name  of  their  former 
home  in  Yorkshire,  says,  "  They  were  the  first  people 
that  set  upon  making  of  cloth  in  the  western  world, 
for  which  end  they  built  a  fulling-mill,  and  caused  their 
little  ones  to  be  very  diligent  in  spinning  cotton,  many 
of  them  having  been  clothiers  in  England."  .  This  in- 
dustry, so  far  at  least  as  spinning  is  concerned,  spread 
through  the  whole  community.  Every  farmer  raised 
flax,  which  his  wife  caused  to  be  wrought  into  linen  ; 
and  wherever  sheep  were  kept,  wool  was  spun  into  yarn 
for  the  knitting-needles  and  the  loom.  A  young  woman 
who  could  spin,  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  more  than 
thirty  knots  of  warp  or  forty  of  filling,  was  in  high  es- 
timation among  sagacious  neighbors  having  marriage- 
able sons.  This  industry  occupied  a  chamber  in  the 
dwelling-house,  or  a  separate  building  in  the  yard.     The 


r*»^^ 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL   LIFE,  365 

music  of  the  wheel  was  frequently  accompanied  with 
song.  Tradition  relates  that  when  Whalley  and  Goffe 
^v.is  were  concealed  at  Milford  in  a  cellar  under  a  spinning- 
shop,  the  maids,  being  accustomed  to  sing  at  their  work, 
and  unaware  that  any  but  themselves  were  within  hear- 
ing, sang  a  satirical  ballad  concerning  the  regicides, 
and  that  the  concealed  auditors  were  so  much  amused 
that  they  entreated  their  friend,  the  master  of  the 
family,  to  procure  a  repetition  of  the  song. 

The  simple,  regular  life  of  a  planter's  family  was 
favorable  to  health.  As  compared  with  the  present  time 
there  was  but  little  excitement  and  but  little  worry 
for  man  or  woman.  As  compared  with  Old  England  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  New  Haven,  during  the  twen- 
ty-seven years  in  which  it  was  a  separate  jurisdiction, 
might  be  called  a  healthy  region.  England  was  then 
often  ravaged  by  the  plague.  In  Sandwich  in  Kent 
there  were,  on  the  12th  of  March,  1637,  that  is,  about 
six  weeks  before  the  first  company  of  New  Haven 
planters  sailed  from  London,  "seventy-eight  houses 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  persons  infected.*' 
On  the  30th  of  June,  that  is,  four  days  after  the  Hector 
arrived  in  Boston,  "  twenty-four  houses  and  tents  were 
shut  up,  in  which  were  one  hundred  and  three  persons. 
From  the  6th  of  July  to  the  Sth  of  October  there 
were  buried  in  St.  Clement's  parish  about  ten  every 
week  who  died  of  the  plague."  While  Mr.  Davenport 
was  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's,  the  city  of  London  was 
visited  with  a  pestilence  which  swept  away  thirty-five 
thousand  of  its  inhabitants.  The  parish  register  re- 
cords the  vote  of  the  parishioners  "  that  Mr.  Davenport 


366  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

shall  have  of  the  parish  funds  in  respect  of  his  care  and 
pains  taken  in  time  of  the  visitation  of  sickness,  as  a 
gratuity,  the  sum  of  ;f  20." 

In  coming  to  New  Haven,  the  planters  found  a  more 
salubrious  or  certainly  a  less  deadly  atmosphere  than 
they  had  breathed  in  England;  nevertheless  they 
were  grievously  afflicted  with  sickness,  malaria  having 
been  more  prevalent  than  in  the  other  New  England 
colonies. 

"It  is  not  annual,"  says  Hubbard,  "as  in  Virginia, 
there  being  sundry  years  when  there  is  nothing  consid- 
erable of  it,  nor  ordinarily  so  violent  and  universal; 
yet  at  some  times  it  falls  very  hard  upon  the  inhabit- 
ants, not  without  strange  varieties  of  the  dispensations 
of  Providence ;  for  some  years  it  hath  been  almost  uni- 
versal upon  the  plantations,  yet  little  mortality;  at 
other  times,  it  hath  been  very  mortal  in  a  plantation  or 
two,  when  others  that  have  had  as  many  sick,  have 
scarcely  made  one  grave ;  it  hath  been  known  also  in 
some  years  that  some  one  plantation  hath  been  singled 
out  and  visited  after  a  sore  manner  when  others  have 
been  healthy  round  about."  Much  has  been  written 
of  the  depression  which  settled  upon  the  town  of  New 
Haven  in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  its  expectations 
in  regard  to  commerce ;  but  perhaps  the  prevalence  of 
malaria  may  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  discourage- 
ment of  the  people,  for,  as  this  disease  in  modem  times 
takes  away  the  energy  and*  hopefulness  of  the  patient, 
so  it  was  then,  as  Hubbard  testifies,  "attended  with 
great  prostration  of  spirits." 

The  following  record  shows  not  only  that  the  years 
1658  and  1659  were  very  sickly  in  the  principal  planta- 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  367 

tion,  but  that  there  was  a  general  remissness  in  paying 
the  physician.     At  a  town  meeting,  Jan.  29,  1660:  — 

"  Mr.  Augur  declared  that  (it  having  pleased  God  to  visit  the 
town  sorely  by  sickness  the  two  last  years)  his  stock  of  physic  is 
gone,  and  how  to  procure  more  out  of  his  returns  he  saw  not,  being 
disabled  by  the  non-payment  of  some  and  the  unsuitable  payment 
of  others.  To  get  supplies,  those  that  were  Mr.  Augur's  debtors 
were  called  upon  to  attend  their  duty.  It  was  also  declared  that 
if  Mr.  Augur  see  cause  to  bring  any  of  them  to  the  court,  it  will 
be  witnessed  against  as  a  wrong  to  the  public,  that  a  physician 
should  be  discouraged." 

As  Mr.  Augur  had  signified  about  a  year  before,  his 
intention  to  lay  down  the  practice  of  physic  because  his 
pay  was  not  brought  in  with  satisfactory  promptnesis, 
and  the  neglect  to  pay  him  had  been  "witnessed 
against  as  an  act  of  unrighteousness,"  probably  there 
was  some  temporary  virtue  in  the  witnessing  of  the 
General  Court  in  his  behalf. 

Mr.  Augur  was  at  this  time  the  only  physician  in  the 
town  of  New  Haven,  Mr.  Pell  and  Mr.  Westerhouse 
having  removed  some  years  before.  That  he  was  not 
in  high  repute  appears  from  attempts  which  were  made 
to  procure  another  physician.  In  November,  165 1, 
soon  after  Mr.  Pell's  removal :  — 

"  The  governor  acquainted  the  Court  that  there  is  a  physician 
come  to  the  town,  who,  he  thinks,  is  willing  to  stay  here,  if  he 
may  have  encouragement.  He  is  a  Frenchman ;  but  hath  lived  in 
England  and  in  Holland  a  great  while,  and  hath  good  testimonials 
from  both  places,  and  from  the  University  of  Franeker  where  he 
hath  approved  himself  in  his  disputations  able  in  understanding  in 
that  art;  and  Mr.  Davenport  saith,  he  finds  in  discourse  with  him, 
that  his  abilities  answer  the  testimony  given.  Now  the  town  may 
consider  what  they  will  do  in  the  cast,  for  it  is  not  good  to  neglect 


368  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

such  providences  of  God  when  they  are  oflFered.  The  Court,  after 
consideration,  desired  the  former  committee  to  speak  with  him, 
and  desire  his  settling  amongst  us  ;  and  that  he  may  have  a  house 
provided,  and  encouraged  in  provisions  and  what  also  is  necessary, 
to  the  value  of  ten  pounds." 

The  committee  reported  soon  after  "  that  they  had 
spoken  with  the  French  doctor,  and  find  his  wants  so 
many  that  ten  pounds  will  go  but  a  little  way  in  provid- 
ing for  him.**  But  so  strong  was  the  desire  to  have  Dr. 
Chais  remain,  that  a  house  was  procured,  and  furniture 
was  loaned  by  divers  persons.  In  less  than  three 
months  '*the  magistrates  and  elders  were  desired  to 
speak  with  the  doctor,  and  see  if  they  cannot  settle  a 
more  moderate  price  for  his  visiting  of  sick  folk  than 
he  hath  yet  taken  ;"  and  in  a  little  more  than  a  year  after 
the  town  had  invited  him  to  settle,  they  consented  "that 
he  shall  have  liberty  to  go,  as  he  sees  he  hath  opportu- 
nity." 

Unable  to  retain  Dr.  Chais,  some  obtained  medical 
advice  and  medicines  from  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  who 
resided  at  Pcquot,  afterward  named  New  London.  Mr. 
Davenport  sends  an  Indian,  as  a  special  messenger,  with 
a  letter  dated  Aug.  20,  1653,  inquiring  how  he  can  best 
consult  with  him  about  the  state  of  his  body,  whether  by 
coming  to  Pequot  to  sojourn  for  a  time,  or  by  accom- 
panying Winthrop  on  a  journey,  —  which  he  has  heard 
that  the  latter  intends  to  make  to  Boston,  —  or  by  wait- 
ing for  Winthrop  to  visit  New  Haven  after  his  return 
from  the  Bay.  In  the  spring  of  1655,  he  says,  "  The  win- 
ter hath  been  extraordinarily  long  and  sharp  and  sickly 
among  us."  "  My  family  hath  been  kept  from  the  com- 
mon sickness  in  this  town,  by  the  goodness  and  mercy  of 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  369 

God,  this  winter ;  only  Edmund,  my  man-servant,  hath 
been  exercised  with  it  near  unto  death."  Soon  after 
this,  Winthrop  took  Mr.  Malbon's  house,  and  for  the 
space  of  two  or  three  years  resided  part  of  the  time  in 
New  Haven,  very  much  to  the  content  of  those  who 
did  not  think  highly  of  Mr.  Augur's  skill.  The  town 
were  so  desirous  of  securing  Winthrop,  that  they  would 
have  freely  given  the  use  of  the  house ;  but  he  was  a 
man  unwilling  to  be  put  under  obligation,  and  there- 
fore the  house  was  sold  to  him  for  ;£icx)  to  be  paid  in 
goats  at  his  farm  on  Fisher's  Island.  He  ceased  to 
reside  in  New  Haven  before  the  great  sickness  of  1658 
and  1659,  and  sold  the  house  back  to  the  town  in  the 
last  named  year.  Mr.  Davenport,  writing  to  him  during 
the  sickness,  mentions  such  symptoms  as  gripings, 
vomitings,  fluxes,  agues  and  fevers,  giddiness,  much 
sleepiness,  and  burning.  He  says,  "It  comes  by  fits 
every  other  day."  He  informs  him  that  the  supply  of 
medicine  he  had  left  with  Mrs.  Davenport  is  spent. 
"  The  extremities  of  the  people  have  caused  her  to  part 
with  what  she  reserved  for  our  own  family,  if  need 
should  require."  He  adds  in  a  postscript,  "Sir,  my 
wife  desires  a  word  or  two  of  advice  from  you,  what  is 
best  to  be  done  for  those  gripings  and  agues  and  fevers ; 
but  she  is  loth  to  be  too  troublesome ;  yet  as  the  cases 
are  weighty,  she  desires  to  go  upon  the  surest  ground, 
and  to  take  the  safest  courses,  and  knoweth  none  whose 
judgment  she  can  so  rest  in  as  in  yours." 

With  all  the  despondency  resting  upon  the  town, 
there  was  mingled  the  same  comfort  which  comforts  all 
communities  afflicted  with  malaria ;  namely,  the  convic- 
tion that  the  evil  is  not  so  great  as  in  some  other 


370  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

places.  Mr.  Davenport,  when  writing  that  "many  are 
afflictively  exercised,"  adds,  "though  more  moderately 
in  this  town,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  than  at  Norwalk 
and  Fairfield.  Young  Mr.  Allerton,  who  lately  came 
from  the  Dutch,  saith  they  are  much  more  sorely  visited 
there,  than  these  parts  are.  It  is  said  that  at  Maspeag 
the  inhabitants  are  generally  so  ill  that  they  are  likely 
to  lose  their  harvest  through  want  of  ability  to  reap 
it." 

It  is  evident  that  the  care  of  the  sick  must  have  been 
an  important  part  of  domestic  life  in  New  Haven  while 
these  malarial  diseases  prevailed.  With  more  or  less  of 
skill,  and  more  or  less  of  success,  ever)'  family  nursed  its 
sick.  There  was  sickness  alike  in  the  hut  of  the  mean 
man,  and  in  the  mansion  of  the  governor.  Death  with 
impartial  step  entered  where  he  pleased.  With  what 
degree  of  skill  the  disease  was  combated  at  first,  the 
reader  may  guess  from  the  declaration  of  Hubbard  that 
the  "gentle  conductitious  aiding  of  nature  hath  been 
found  better  than  sudden  and  violent  means  by  purga- 
tion or  otherwise  ;  and  blood-letting,  though  much  used 
in  Europe  for  fevers,  especially  in  the  hotter  countries, 
is  found  deadly  in  this  fever,  even  almost  without  escap- 
mg. 

The  restraint  which  the  Puritans  put  upon  their 
feelings  appears,  perhaps,  more  wonderful  when  death 
entered  the  house,  than  at  any  other  time.  We  have  a 
detailed  report  of  the  manner  in  which  Gov.  Eaton 
carried  himself  when  his  eldest  son  was  called  to  die  :  — 

"  His  eldest  son  he  maintained  at  the  college  until  he  proceeded 
master  of  arts ;  and  he  was  indeed  the  son  of  his  vows,  and  the 
SOD  of  great  hopes.    But  a  severe  catarrh  diverted  this  young 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE,  37 1 

gentleman  from  the  work  of  the  ministry,  whereto  his  father  had 
once  devoted  him :  and  a  mah'gnant  fever,  then  raging  in  those 
parts  of  the  country,  carried  off  him  with  his  wife  within  two  or 
three  days  of  one  another.  This  was  counted  the  sorest  of  all  the 
trials  that  ever  befell  his  father  in  the  days  of  the  years  of  his 
pilgrimage,  but  he  bore  it  with  a  patience  and  composure  of  spirit 
truly  admirable.     His  dying  son  looked  earnestly  on  him,  and  said, 

*  Sir,  what  shall  we  do  ?  *  Whereto,  with  a  well-ordered  counte- 
nance, he  replied,  *  Look  up  to  God ! '  And  when  he  passed  by  his 
daughter,  drowned  in  tears  on  this  occasion,  to    her  he  said, 

*  Remember  the  sixth  commandment;  hurt  not  yourself  with  immod- 
erate grief ;  remember  Job,  who  said,  "  The  Lord  hath  given,  and 
the  Lord  hath  taken  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord." 
You  may  mark  what  a  note  the  spirit  of  God  put  upon  it,  —  "In  all 
this  Job  sinned  not,  nor  charged  God  foolishly."  God  accounts  it 
a  charging  him  foolishly  when  we  don't  submit  unto  him  patiently.' 
Accordingly  he  now  governed  himself  as  one  that  had  attained 
unto  the  rule  of  weeping  as  if  he  wept  not ;  for,  it  being  the  Lord's 
day,  he  repaired  unto  the  church  in  the  afternoon,  as  he  had  been 
there  in  the  forenoon,  though  he  was  never  like  to  see  his  dearest 
son  alive  any  more  in  this  world.  And  though,  before  the  first 
prayer  began,  a  messenger  came  to  prevent  Mr.  Davenport's  pray- 
ing for  the  sick  person  who  was  now  dead,  yet  his  affectionate 
father  altered  not  his  course,  but  wrote  after  the  preacher  as 
formerly ;  and  when  he  came  home,  he  held  on  his  former  methods 
of  divine  worship  in  his  family,  not,  for  the  excuse  of  Aaron, 
omitting  any  thing  in  the  service  of  God.  In  like  sort,  when  the 
people  had  been  at  the  solemn  interment  of  this  his  worthy  son, 
he  did  with  a  very  unpassionate  aspect  and  carriage  then  say^ 

*  Friends,  I  thank  you  all  for  your  love  and  help,  and  for  this  testi- 
mony of  respect  unto  me  and  mine :  the  Lord  hath  given,  and  the 
Lord  hath  taken ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.'  Never- 
theless, retiring  hereupon  into  the  chamber  where  his  daughter 
then  lay  sick,  some  tears  were  observed  falling  from  him  while  he 
uttered  these  words,  *  There  is  a  difference  between  a  sullen  silence 
or  a  stupid  senselessness  under  the  hand  of  God,  and  a  child-like 
submission  thereunto.' " 


372  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Not  all  Puritans  attained  so  near  to  the  Puritan  ideal 
as  Theophilus  Eaton,  but  all  had  something  of  his  self- 
control.  They  governed  themselves  as  seeing  Him 
who  is  invisible. 

Social  life  among  the  planters  of  the  New  Haven 
colony  had  for  its  basis  contemporary  social  life  in  Eng- 
land, but  was  modified  by  Puritanism,  and  by  emigra- 
tion to  a  wilderness.  Some  features  of  it;,  which  seem 
strange  to  one  who  is  acquainted  only  with  the  present 
age,  were  brought  with  them  across  the  water,  and  dis- 
appeared earlier  than  in  the  old  country.  They  brought 
with  them  English  ideas  of  social  rank,  of  the  relative 
duties  of  parents  and  children,  of  the  reser\'e  and  seclu- 
sion proper  for  young  women,  and  of  the  super\-ision 
under  which  young  people  of  the  different  sexes  might 
associate.  They  did  not  originate  the  public  sentiment 
or  the  legislation  on  these  subjects  which  provokes  the 
merriment  of  the  present  age. 

Their  religious  convictions  of  course  influenced  their 
social  life.  It  would  be  impossible  that  any  community 
as  homogeneous  and  earnest  in  religion  as  they  were, 
should  not  have  some  peculiarity  springing  from  this 
source.  A  peculiarity  of  the  Puritans  was  seriousness. 
Such  convictions  as  they  cherished  will  necessarily  pro- 
duce more  than  an  average  seriousness  of  manner ;  and 
if  this  be  true  in  a  prosperous  community  whose  tranquil- 
lity has  not  been  disturbed  for  a  generation,  we  should 
expect  to  find  even  more  seriousness  among  a  people 
who  have  expatriated  themselves  for  their  religious  con- 
victions. If  we  again  take  Theophilus  Eaton  as  an 
illustration,  he  was  a  man  of  gravity  when  residing  in 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  373 

London  and  in  the  East  countries.  He  would  have 
been  such  if  the  Puritan  party  had  been  in  power,  and 
he  consequently  in  security.  He  was  probably  more  so 
by  reason  of  the  annoyances  and  dangers  to  which  he 
and  his  friends  were  exposed.  Having  undertaken  to 
establish  a  new  plantation  in  the  wilderness,  his  greater 
responsibility  would  naturally  produce  a  deeper  serious- 
ness. A  member  of  his  family  testifies  that  "  he  seldom 
used  any  recreations,  but,  being  a  great  reader,  all  the 
time  he  could  spare  from  company  and  business,  he 
commonly  spent  in  his  beloved  study."  It  would  be  an 
error,  however,  to  suppose  that  this  seriousness  had 
with  it  no  admixture  of  gayety ;  for  Hubbard,  who  was 
partly  his  contemporary,  describes  him  as  "of  such 
pleasantness  and  fecundity  of  harmless  wit  as  can 
hardly  be  paralleled." 

Residence  in  a  new  country  also  influenced  social 
life,  but  not  as  much  as  in  many  other  cases  of  removal 
to  a  wilderness.  It  has  been  said  in  modern  time  that 
emigration  tends  to  barbarism  ;  but  this  could  not  have 
been  true  in  their  case,  in  any  considerable  degree. 
From  the  first  sabbath,  they  maintained  the  public 
worship  of  God.  Before  the  first  year  had  passed, 
their  children  were  gathered  into  a  school.  Laws 
were  as  diligently  executed  as  anywhere  in  the  world. 
Every  plantation  had  in  it  from  the  first  some  per- 
sons of  polite  manners,  to  whom  those  of  less  culture 
looked  up  with  respect.  The  principal  plantation  was 
a  compact  and  populous  town,  and  some  of  its  inhabit- 
ants were  not  only  refined,  but  wealthy.  The  pecu- 
liarity of  their  social  state  was  not  that  they  were 
more  barbarous  than  other  Englishmen,  but  it  consisted 


374  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

rather  in  that  mutual  dependence  and  helpfulness  usu- 
ally to  be  found  in  a  new  country.  News  from  home 
was  communicated  to  the  neighbors.  Letters  of  intel- 
ligence, an  institution  which  during  the  existence  of 
the  colony  began  to  give  place  to  printed  newspapers, 
were  passed  from  hand  to  hand.'  Corn  was  husked 
and  houses  were  "raised**  by  neighborly  kindness.  The 
whole  plantation  sympathized  with  a  family  afflicted 
with  sickness,  and  the  neighbors  assisted  them  in  nurs- 
ing and  watching.  Families  entertained  travellers  after 
the  manner  of  Christians  of  the  first  centuries,  and 
highly  prized  their  visits  as  seasons  of  fellowship,  and 
opportunities  for  learning  the  news  of  the  day.  The 
train-band  and  the  night  watch  were  also  peculiar 
features  of  the  social  system  incident  to  a  plantation 
in  the  wilderness.  Comparing  the  social  state  in  the 
New  Haven  colony  with  that  which  now  obtains  on  the 
same  territory,  we  find  more  manifestation  of  social  in- 
equality. This  appears  in  the  titles  prefixed  to  names. 
The  name  of  a  young  man  had  no  prefix  till  he  became 
a  master  workman.  Then,  if  he  were  an  artisan  or  a 
husbandman,  he  might  be  addressed  by  the  honorary 
title  of  Goodman,  and  his  wife  might  be  called  Good- 
wife  or  Goody.  A  person  who  employed  laborers  but 
did  not  labor  with  them  was  distinguished  from  one 
whose  prefix  was  Goodman,  by  the  prefix  Mr.  This 
term  of  respect  was  accorded  to  elders,  magistrates, 
teachers,  merchants,  and  men  of  wealth,  whether  en- 
gaged  in   merchandise,  or  living   in   retirement   from 

'  Notice  on  page  419  what  Mr.  Davenport  says  of  "the  two  Weekly 
Intelligences."  These  were,  I  think,  two  numbers  of  a  printed  periodi- 
cal. 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE,  375 

trade.'  Social  inequality  was  also  strikingly  manifest 
in  the  "  seating  of  the  meeting-house,"  the  governor 
and  deputy-governor  being  seated  on  the  front  form, 
and  allowed  its  whole  length  for  the  accommodation  of 
themselves  and  their  guests,  while  others  were  disposed 
behind  them  and  in  the  end  seats,  according  to  social 
position ;  but  a  back  seat  of  the  same  length  as  those 
in  front  was  considered  sufficiently  long  for  seven  men. 
The  women  on  the  other  side  of  the  house  were  ar- 
ranged with  the  same  consideration  of  rank.  No  seats 
were  assigned  to  persons  inferior  to  a  goodman  and  a 
goodwife. 

Although  many  of  the  people  were  much  confined  at 
home  during  the  week  by  domestic  industry,  all  as- 
sembled every  Sunday  for  worship.  In  but  few  cases 
was  the  attendance  perfunctory.  They  went  to  the 
house  of  God  from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  they  went  with 
a  willing  mind.  They  were  interested,  not  only  in  the 
worship  and  instruction  of  the  church,  but  in  the  as- 
sembly. Their  social  longings  were  gratified  with  the 
announcement  of  intended  marriages,  with  "bills"  ask- 
ing the  prayers  of  the  church  for  the  sick,  for  the 
recently  bereaved,  for  those  about  to  make  a  voyage  to 
Boston  ;  or  with  "  bills  "  returning  thanks  for  recovery 
from  a  dangerous  illness  or  for  a  safe  return  from  a 
journey  or  a  voyage.  Besides  such  personal  items  as 
reached  their  6ars  by  way  of  the  pulpit,  others  came 
to  them  in  a  more  private  way  as  they  spoke  with  ac- 

'  In  Massachusetts  it  was  "ordered  that  Josias  Plastowe  shall,  for 
stealing  four  baskets  of  com  from  the  Indians,  return  them  eight  baskets 
ag?in,  be  fined. five  pounds,  and  hereafter  to  be  called  by  the  name  of 
Josias  and  not  Mr.  as  formerly  he  used  to  be.*' 


3/6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

quaintances  dwelling  in  a  different  quarter  or  at  the 
farms.  It  was  a  satisfaction  to  persons,  who,  during 
the  week,  had  seen  only  the  inmates  of  their  own  houses 
and  a  few  neighbors,  even  to  look  on  such  an  assembly. 
Let  the  reader  fancy  himself  entering  the  market- 
place in  New  Haven  town,  while  Stephen  Metcalf  and 
Robert  Bassett,  "the  common  drummers  for  the  town," 
are  sounding  the  second  drum  on  a  Sunday  morning. 
The  chimney-smoke  rises  not  only  from  the  habitations 
of  the  town,  but  from  as  many  sabbath-day  houses  as 
there  are  families  dwelling  at  the  farms.'  From  every 
direction  families  are  approaching  the  square.  The 
limping  Wigglesworth,  whose  lameness  was  afterward 
so  severe  "  that  he  is  not  able  to  come  to  the  meeting, 
and  so  is  many  times  deprived  of  the  ordinances," 
starting  early  from  his  house,  (which  was  in  Chapel 
Street,  near  the  intersection  since  made  by  High 
Street,)  is  the  first  to  enter  the  south  door  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. Seeley,  straight  and  stalwart  in  contrast  with 
this  poor  cripple,  stands  near,  conversing  with  the  mas- 

'  A  sabbath-day  house  was  a  hut,  in  one  end  of  which  horses  might 
be  sheltered,  and  in  the  other  end  was  a  room  having  a  fireplace  and 
furnished,  perhaps,  with  a  bench,  a  few  chairs,  and  a  table.  Here  the 
owners  arrived  soon  after  the  first  drum,  and,  if  cold,  kindled  a  fire.  Here 
they  deposited  their  lunch,  and  any  wraps  which  niight  be  superfluous  in 
the  meeting-house.  Hither  they  came  to  spend  the  intermission  of  wor- 
ship. The  writer  remembers  such  houses  in  a  country  parish  near  New 
Haven,  where  he  visited  when  a  child.  In  one  of  them  he  spent  an  inter- 
mission, dividing  his  attention,  when  in  the  room  devoted  to  the  human 
inmates,  between  doughnuts  and  the  open  fireplace  with  its  rusty  fire-dogs 
and  large  bed- of  live  coals;  but  preferring  the  company  of  the  pony 
behind  the  chimney  to  that  of  the  solemn  people  before  the  fire.  He  was 
bom  a  little  too  late  to  remember  sabbath-day  houses  in  New  Haven, 
but  his  father  has  told  him  where  this  and  that  family  had  such  accom- 
modations. 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE,  Z77 

ter  of  the  watch,  as  the  watchmen  move  away  to  patrol 
the  town.  Following  Wigglesworth  comes  "  the  right 
worshipful  Stephen  Goodyear,  Esquire,'*  deputy-gover- 
nor, and  his  neighbor,  the  reverend  teacher  of  the 
church,  William  Hooke,*  afterward  chaplain  to  Oliver 
Cromwell,  wearing  gown  and  bands.  On  the  east  side 
of  the  market-place,  the  pastor,  also  in  gown  and  bands, 
comes  in  solitary  meditation  through  the  passage  which 
the  town  had  given  him  between  Mr.  Crane's  lot  and 
Mr.  Rowe's  lot,  "that  he  may  go  out  of  his  own  garden 
to  the  meeting-house."  His  family,  that  they  may  not 
intrude  upon  him  in  this  holy  hour,  come  through  the 
public  street.  Gov.  Eaton,  with  his  aged  mother  lean- 
ing on  his  arm,  walks  up  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
same  street,  and  crosses  over  from  Mr.  Perry's  comer, 
followed  by  his  honored  guests  and  the  rest  of  his  nu- 
merous household.  When  all  but  a  few  tardy  families 
have  reached  the  meeting-house,  the  drums  cease  to 
beat.  The  squadron  on  duty  for  the  day  march  in,  and 
seat  themselves  on  the  soldiers'  seats  near  the  east 
door,  which  is  "kept  clear  from  women  and  children 
sitting  there,  that  if  there  be  occasion  for  the  soldiers 
to  go  suddenly  forth,  they  may  have  free  passage." 

Days  of  extraordinary  humiliation  were  appointed  by 
the  General  Court  from  time  to  time  in  view  of  public 
calamities  or  apprehended  danger.  On  such  days  there 
were  two  assemblies;  and  abstinence  from  labor  and 
amusements  was  required  as  on  the  Lord's  Day,  though 
with  less  rigidness  of  interpretation,  the  prohibition 
crystallizing  in  later  times  into  the  formula,  "  All  servile 

'  Mr.  Hooke  had  the  lot  which  had  been  Zachariah  Whitman's,  at 
the  comer  of  Chapel  and  College  Streets. 


3/8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

labor  and  vain  recreations  on  said  day  are  by  law  forbid- 
den." On  Thanksgiving  Day,  as  we  learn  from  Daven- 
port's letter  to  Winthrop,  in  which  he  mentions  Gov. 
Newman's  sickness  and  death,  there  were  also  two  ser- 
vices in  the  meeting-house.  Adding  these  occasional 
assemblies  to  those  of  the  Lord's  Day,  we  find  that  the 
whole  population  were  often  called  together.  But  there 
were,  besides,  convocations  on  lecture-days,  occasional 
church-meetings,  and  in  the  several  neighborhoods  "  pri- 
vate meetings  wherein  they  that  dwelt  nearest  together 
gave  their  accounts  one  to  another  of  God's  gracious 
work  upon  them,  and  prayed  together,  and  conferred,  to 
their  mutual  edification."  These  private  meetings  were 
held  weekly,  and  in  the  day-time,  as  appears  from  a  ques- 
tion which  Mr.  Peck,  the  school-master,  propounded  to 
the  court,  "  whether  the  master  shall  have  liberty  to  be 
at  neighbors'  meetings  once  every  week."  Assemblies 
for  worship  were  certainly  a  very  important  feature  in 
social  life. 

Almost  equally  prominent  were  military  trainings. 
Soldiers  were  on  duty  every  night.  One-fourth  of  the 
men  subject  to  bear  arms  were  paraded  before  the  meet- 
ing-house every  Sunday,  and  were  at  frequent  intervals 
trained  on  a  week-day.  Six  times  in  a  year  the  whole 
military  force  of  the  plantation  was  called  out.  A  gen- 
eral training  brought  together,  not  only  those  obliged  to 
train,  but  old  men,  women,  and  children,  as  spectators 
of  the  military  exercises,  and  of  the  athletic  games 
with  which  they  were  accompanied.  Almost  as  many 
people  were  in  the  market-place  on  training-day  as  on 
Sunday,  and  those  who  came  had  greater  opportunity 
for  social  converse  than  on  the  day  of  worship.     The 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  379 

enjoyment  which  each  experienced  in  watching  the 
manoeuvres  of  the  soldiers,  and  the  games  of  cudgel, 
backsword,  fencing,  running,  leaping,  wrestling,  stool- 
bail,  nine-pins,  and  quoits,  was  enhanced  by  sharing  the 
spectacle  with  the  multitude,  meeting  old  friends,  and 
making  acquaintance  with  persons  of  congenial  spirit. 

Election-days  were  also  occasions  when  the  people 
left  their  homes,  and  came  together.  The  meeting  of 
a  plantation  court  did  not  indeed  bring  out  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  the  planters  as  a  general  training  did ; 
but  when  the  annual  election  for  the  jurisdiction  took 
place,  the  pillion  was  fastened  behind  the  saddle,  and 
the  goodwif^  rode  with  her  goodman  to  the  seat  of 
government  to  truck  some  of  the  yam  she  had  been 
spinning,  for  ribbons  and  other  foreign  goods,  as  well 
as  to  gather  up  the  gossip  of  the  year.  On  such  occa- 
sions a  store  of  cake  was  provided  beforehand,  and 
"election  cake"  is  consequently  one  of  the  institutions 
received  from  our  forefathers. 

For  several  years  there  were  two  fairs  held  annually 
at  the  town  of  New  Haven,  one  in  May,  and  one  in 
September,  for  the  sale  of  cattle  and  other  merchandise. 
These  of  course  attracted  people  from  all  parts  of  the 
jurisdiction. 

In  addition  to  these  public  assemblies  of  one  kind 
and  another,  there  was  daily  intercourse  between  neigh- 
bors. Women  sometimes  carried  their  wheels  from  one 
house  to  another,  that  they  might  spin  in  company. 
There  were  gatherings  at  weddings  and  at  funerals. 
There  was  neighborly  assistance  in  nursing  and  watch- 
ing the  sick.  There  was,  as  has  been  already  related, 
social  visiting  in   the   evening  after  the  Lord's  Day. 


380  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

There  were  house-raisings,  when  the  neighbors  assem- 
bled to  lift  and  put  together  the  timbers  of  a  new  dwell- 
ing ;  and  house-warmings,  when,  being  again  invited, 
some  months  later,  they  came  to  rejoice  with  those  who 
had  taken  possession  of  a  new  dwelling.  There  were 
huskings  in  the  autumn  when  the  maize  had  been 
gathered  and  brought  in  ;  but  in  the  plantation  of  New 
Haven  single  persons  were  not  allowed  to  **  meet 
together  upon  pretence  of  husking  Indian  com,  out  of 
the  family  to  which  they  belong,  after  nine  of  the  clock 
at  night,  unless  the  master  or  parent  of  such  person  or 
persons  be  with  them  to  prevent  disorders  at  such 
times,  or  some  fit  person  intrusted  to  that  end  by  the 
said  parent  or  master." 

In  view  of  the  frequency  with  which  the  planters 
were  convened  in  greater  or  less  companies,  it  is  evi- 
dent, that,  however  affected  by  their  Puritanism  and  by 
emigration  to  a  wilderness,  they  were  a  social  people. 
They  did  not  retire  within  themselves  to  live  recluse  from 
human  converse,  but  endeavored  to  purify  their  social 
life.  In  this  respect  New  Haven  resembled  the  other 
New  England  colonies,  but,  contrary  to  a  somew^hat 
prevalent  opinion,  did  not  go  as  far  as  the  other  colonies 
in  attempts  to  control  social  life  by  legislation.'  "  Mixt 
dancing"  was  discountenanced,  and,  by  construction, 
forbidden,  but  there  was  no  legal  prohibition  of  dancing. 
The  General  Court,  referring  in  1660  to  some  former 

'  Professor  Kingslcy,  in  a  note  to  his  historical  discourse,  delivered  on 
the  two  hundredth  anniversarj-  of  the  settlement  of  New  Haven,  traces  the 
impression  that  there  had  been  "blue  laws"  at  New  Haven  as  far  back 
as  the  year  1767,  when  Judge  Smith  of  New  York,  having  heard  of  such 
a  code,  embraced  the  opportunity  afforded  by  a  visit  to  New  Haven  to 
examine  the  early  records  of  the  colony.  "  A  lie  will  travel  round  the 
world  while  Truth  is  putting  on  her  boots." 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  38 1 

laws  of  a  very  general  nature,  designed  to  restrain  idle 
or  evil  living  or  miscarryings,  declared  in  explanation : — 

"  Now  that  it  may  more  clearly  be  understood  what  we  judge  to 
be  such  miscarriages  or  misdemeanors  amongst  such  persons,  as 
do  thus  tend  to  discourage  God's  work  under  our  hands,  and  may 
prove  hurtful  and  hindersome  to  the  profiting  of  our  posterity  ris- 
ing, we  do  express  that  not  only  such  night  meetings  unseason- 
ably, but  corrupt  songs  and  foolish  jesting  or  such  like  discourses, 
wanton  and  lascivious  carriages,  mixt  dancings,  immoderate  play- 
ing at  any  sort  of  sports  and  games,  or  mere  idle  living  out  of  an 
honest  calling  industriously,  or  extravagant  expenses  by  drinking, 
apparel,  and  so  forth,  have  all  and  every  of  them  such  a  tendency." 

Gaming  by  shufHe-board  was  prohibited,  as  was 
shuffle-board  at  taverns,  and  by  minors,  but  there  was 
no  enactment  against  shuffle-board  as  such.  Card-play- 
ing was  not  forbidden,  but  the  explanatory  declaration 
of  the  General  Court  cited  above,  was  on  one  occasion 
publicly  read  as  a  warning  to  Samuel  Andrews,  Good- 
wife  Spinage,  and  James  Eaton,  when,  being  summoned 
before  the  Court,  they  were  charged  with  allowing 
young  persons  to  play  cards  in  their  houses.  Goodwife 
Spinage  said  "that  the  scholars  had  played  at  cards 
there  [at  her  house]  on  the  last  days  of  the  week  and 
on  play-days  in  the  afternoon,  but  in  the  evening,  never." 
Andrews  "  confessed  he  had  done  wrong,  and  professed 
his  hearty  sorrow."  Eaton  "acknowledged  that  he 
might  have  spent  his  time  better,  and  if  it  were  to  do 
again,  he  would  not  do  it,  being  it  is  judged  unlawful 
and  gives  offence ;  but  for  the  thing  itself,  unless  all 
recreation  be  unlawful,  he  cannot  see  that  what  he  hath 
done  is  evil."  The  Court  suspended  judgment,  "  hoping 
that  this  will  be  a  warning  to  them  to  take  heed  of  such 


382  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

evil  practices,  and  to  improve  their  houses  to  better 
purposes  for  time  to  come  than  herein  they  have  done. 
But  as  if  Eaton  had  given  less  satisfaction  than  the 
others,  he  was  called  again  some  three  months  after- 
ward, when  he  declared  unto  the  Court  that  he  under- 
stood that  there  were  reports  abroad  of  his  miscarriage 
in  suffering  some  young  persons  to  be  at  his  house  at 
an  unseasonable  time,  which  report  he  acknowledged 
to  be  true,  and  professed  his  hearty  sorrow  for  it,  and 
his  desire  to  see  the  evil  of  it  more  and  more,  and  that 
God  would  help  him  for  tirne  to  come  to  keep  a  con- 
science void  of  offence  toward  God  and  toward  men." ' 
There  were  in  New  Haven  no  sumptuary  laws,  and, 
so  far  as  appears,  there  was,  with  the  exception  of  the 
explanatory  declaration  in  1660,  no  attempt  to  restrain 
extravagance  in  apparel,  either  by  legal  enactment  or 
by  the  concentration  of  public  opinion.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, Winthrop  writes,  about  six  months  after  the 
settlement  at  New  Haven  was  begun,  that  "the  Court, 
taking  into  consideration  the  great  disorder  general 
throughout   the   country  in  costliness   of   apparel  and 

'  Some  of  the  descendants  of  this  James  Eaton,  or  as  his  name  is 
more  commonly  written,  James  Heaton,  claim  that  he  was  a  son  of  The- 
ophilus  Eaton,  jun.,  the  younger  son  of  Gov.  P2aton,  alleging  that  he  gave 
the  name  Theophilus  to  one  of  his  sons,  that  the  name  has  been  repeated 
in  every  generation  since,  and  that  their  family  still  possess  land  in  North 
Haven,  east  of  the  Quinnipiac,  which  belonged  to  the  governor.  I  can- 
not find  that  the  governor  had  any  land  east  of  the  Quinnipiac,  except  at 
Stony  River.  Any  presumptive  evidence  afforded  by  the  name  Theophi- 
lus disappears  when  we  learn  from  the  parish  register  of  St.  Stephen's 
that  Theophilus,  son  of  Theophilus  and  Anne  Eaton,  was  baptized  March 
II,  1631,  and  from  the  New  Haven  records  that  James  Eaton  took  the 
oath  of  fidelity  April  4,  1654.  Theophilus  Eaton,  jun.,  could  not  have 
been  eight  years  old  when  James  Eaton  was  bom. 


DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  383 

following  new  fashions,  sent  for  the  elders  of  the 
churches,  and  conferred  with  them  about  it,  and  laid 
it  upon  them,  as  belonging  to  them,  to  redress  it  by 
urging  it  upon  the  consciences  of  their  people,  which 
they  promised  to  do.  But  little  was  done  about  it ;  for 
divers  of  the  elders'  wives  were  in  some  measure  part- 
ners in  this  general  disorder.'*  Some  years  previously 
there  had  been  an  order  of  the  Court  prompted  by  sim- 
ilar feelings,  and  having  a  similar  design.  Afterward 
there  were  in  different  years  several  orders  designed  to 
restrain  extravagance  in  apparel,  especially  "amongst 
people  of  mean  condition,"  one  of  them  expressly  pro- 
viding that  **  this  law  shall  not  extend  to  the  restraint  of 
any  magistrate  or  other  public  officer  of  this  jurisdiction, 
or  any  settled  military  officer,  or  soldier  in  time  of  mili- 
tary service,  or  any  other  whose  education  and  employ- 
ments have  been  above  the  ordinary  degree,  or  whose 
estates  have  been  considerable,  though  now  decayed." 

But  nothing  similar  to  this  is  found  on  the  records  of 
New  Haven.  Some  writer,  noticing  that  both  Plym- 
outh and  New  Haven  differed  from  Massachusetts  in 
that  they  did  not  attempt  to  regulate  dress,  says  that 
Plymouth  was  too  poor,  and  New  Haven  too  rich,  for 
such  legislation.  Perhaps,  however.  New  Haven  was 
restrained  from  enacting  sumptuary  laws  more  by  its 
mercantile  character  than  by  its  wealth.  Its  leading 
men  had  been  accustomed  not  only  to  wear  rich  cloth- 
ing themselves,  and  to  see  it  worn  by  others,  but  to 
increase  their  estates  by  selling  cloth  to  all  comers  who 
were  able  to  pay  for  it.  Their  feelings  were  conse- 
quently different  from  those  of  a  man  like  Winthrop, 
who  had  never  been  a  merchant,  and  had,  like  other 


384  HISTORY  OF  KBW  HAVEN  COLOXY. 

English  country  gentlemen,  regarded  rich  apparel  as  a 
prerogative  of  the  gentry-. 

As  Gov,  Eaton's  wearing  apparel  was  appraised  after 
his  death  at  ;£so,  it  would  seem  that  he  could  not 
have  favored  sumptuary  legislation  consistently  w-ith 
his  own  habits,  unless  he  did  it  in  the  aristocratic 
spirit  of  the  Massachusetts  law.  Considering  how  much 
greater  purchasing  power  there  was  then  in  fifty  pounds 
sterling  than  there  is  now,  we  must  conclude  that  in  his 
dress,  as  well  as  in  the  furniture  of  his  house,  he 
"  maintained  a  port  in  some  measure  answerable  to  his 
place." 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

HISTORY    OF    THE    COLONIAL    GOVERNMENT    TO    THE 
RESTORATION   OF   THE   STUARTS.      . 

WE  have  seen  that  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  when 
it  entered  into  combination  with  Connecticut, 
Plymouth,  and  Massachusetts,  consisted  of  the  planta- 
tions at  New  Haven,  Southold,  and  Stamford,  and  that 
Guilford  and  Milford  were  shortly  afterward  received 
as  component  parts  of  the  jurisdiction.  In  the  spring 
of  1644  Totoket,  or  Branford,  "a  place  fit  for  a  small 
plantation,  betwixt  New  Haven  and  Guilford,"  was 
sold  to  Mr.  Swain  and  others  of  Wethersfield,  upon 
condition  that  they  should  join  in  one  jurisdiction  with 
New  Haven  and  the  other  plantations,  upon  "the  funda- 
mental agreement  settled  in  October,  1643,  which  they, 
duly  considering,  readily  accepted."  Southampton,  on 
Long  Island,  having  placed  itself  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Connecticut,  a  minority  of  the  people,  with  their 
minister,  Mr.  Abraham  Pierson,  preferring  the  theo- 
cratic constitution  of  New  Haven,  removed  to  Branford 
and  united  themselves  with  the  company  from  Weth- 
ersfield. From  this  time  to  its  dissolution  the  juris- 
diction consisted  of  the  six  plantations  of  New  Haven, 
Southold,  Stamford,'  Guilford,  Milford,  and  Branford. 

'  Greenwich  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  Stamford. 

38s 


386  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

In  two  important  particulars  New  Haven  differed 
from  the  other  colonies.  It  was  part  of  its  "funda- 
mental law,'*  as  we  have  already  seen,  that  only  church- 
members  should  be  free-burgcsses  or  voters.  By  "fun- 
damental "  was  meant  unchangeable.  In  our  day  it 
is  generally  allowed  that  a  people  have  the  right  to 
change  the  constitution  of  their  government ;  and  most 
written  constitutions  recognize  their  own  mutability 
by  indicating  the  method  in  which  a  change  may  be 
wrought.  But  the  fundamental  law  established  by  the 
planters  of  Quinnipiac  on  "  the  fourth  day  of  the  fourth 
month,  called  June,  1639,*'  ^^^  afterward  assented  to 
by  the  other  plantations  constituting  the  jurisdiction 
of  New  Haven,  was  designed  to  be  unalterable.  It 
was  understood  to  be  a  compact,  or  agreement,  from 
which  those  who  had  assented  to  it  could  not  recede. 
In  the  words  of  the  colonial  constitution,  "  it  was  agreed 
and  concluded  as  a  fundamental  order  not  to  be  dis- 
puted or  questioned  hereafter,  that  none  shall  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  free  burgesses  in  any  of  the  plantations 
within  this  jurisdiction  for  the  future,  but  such  planters 
as  are  members  of  some  or  other  of  the  approved 
churches  in  New  England."  ' 

The  second  particular  in  which  New  Haven  differed 
from  the  other  colonies  was  in  the  disuse  of  juries. 
In  the  plantation  courts,  and  in  the  courts  of  the  juris- 
diction, the  judges  determined  all  questions  of  fact,  as 
well  as  of  law,  and  of  discretionary  punishment.  It 
has  been  thought  by  some  that  Gov.  Eaton's  residence 

'  In  Massachusetts  only  church-members  could  be  made  freemen,  till 
the  law  was  changed  by  command  of  King  Charles  the  Second.  But  the 
requirement  of -church-membership -was  not  "a  fundamental  law.** 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  GOVERNMENT  387 

in  the  Baltic  countries  suggested  this  departure  from 
English  law.  But  if  suggested  by  any  thing  he  had 
seen  in  other  lands,  it  was  doubtless  commended  to 
him  and  to  others  who  acted  with  him  in  establishing 
a  new  government,  by  its  conformity  to  the  institutions 
of  Moses. 

The  records  give  no  evidence  that  the  disuse  of  juries 
occasioned  any  trouble;  but  Hubbard  thus  criticises  this 
peculiarity  of  New  Haven  :  "  Those  who  were  employed 
in  laying  the  foundation  of  New  Haven  colony,  though 
famed  for  much  wisdom,  experience,  and  judgment,  yet 
did  they  not  foresee  all  the  inconveniency  that  might 
arise  from  such  a  frame  of  government,  so  differing 
from  the  other  colonies  in  the  constitution  thereof, 
manifest  in  their  declining  that  prudent  and  equal  tem- 
perament of  all  interests  in  their  administration  of 
justice,  with  them  managed  by  the  sole  authority  of  the 
rulers  without  the  concurrence  of  a  jury,  the  benefit 
of  which  had  been  so  long  confirmed  by  the  experience 
of  some  ages  in  our  own  nation  ;  for  where  the  whole 
determining,  as  well  both  matter  of  fact  as  matter  of 
law,  with  the  sentence  and  execution  thereof,  depends 
on  the  sole  authority  of  the  judges,  what  can  be  more 
done  for  the  establishing  of  an  arbitrary  power  .^" 

Hubbard  also  testifies  as  follows  concerning  the  lim- 
itation of  the  right  of  suffrage :  "  There  had  been  an 
appearance  of  unquictness  in  the  minds  of  sundry,  upon 
the  account  of  enfranchisement  and  sundry  civil  privi- 
leges thence  flowing,  which  they  thought  too  shortly 
tethered  up  in  the  foundation  of  the  government."  His 
testimony  on  this  subject  is  confirmed  by  that  of  the 
records,  as  will  hereafter  appear. 


388  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

The  colonial  government,  for  ten  years  after  its  estab- 
lishment, experienced  no  greater  trials  than  the  petty 
injuries  and  insults  from  the  Dutch  already  mentioned 
in  the  chapters  on  industrial  pursuits  and  military 
affairs.  But  in  1653,  England  and  Holland  being  at 
war,  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan  evinced  greater  hostility 
than  usual  against  their  English  neighbors.  It  was 
believed  throughout  the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven  that  they  had  plotted  to  form  a  general 
conspiracy  of  Indians  to  massacre  the  English.  Trum- 
bull, who  lived  a  century  later,  seems  to  have  had  entire 
confidence  in  the  testimony.  He  says,  "  Nine  sachems, 
who  lived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Dutch,  sent  their  united 
testimony  to  Stamford  *that  the  Dutch  governor  had 
solicited  them,  by  promising  them  guns,  powder,  swords, 
wampum,  coats,  and  waistcoats,  to  cut  off  the  English.' 
The  messengers  who  were  sent  declared  *that  they 
were  as  the  mouth  of  the  nine  sagamores,  who  all  spake 
they  would  not  lie.*  One  of  the  nine  sachems  after- 
ward came  to  Stamford  with  other  Indians,  and  testi- 
fied the  same.  The  plot  was  confessed  by  a  Wampeag 
and  a  Narraganset  Indian,  and  was  confirmed  by  Indian 
testimonies  from  all  quarters.  It  was  expected  that  a 
Dutch  fleet  would  arrive,  and  that  the  Dutch  and 
Indians  would  unite  in  the  destruction  of  the  English 
plantations.  It  was  rumored  that  the  time  for  the 
massacre  was  fixed  upon  the  day  of  the  public  election, 
when  the  freemen  would  be  generally  from  home." 

Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  naturally  much 
alarmed,  and  became  clamorous  for  war.  The  commis- 
sioners, after  investigation,  declared  war  by  a  vote  of 
seven  to  one.     Mr.  Bradstreet  of  Massachusetts  voted 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  389 

against  the  declaration,  and  the  General  Court  of  that 
jurisdiction,  being  then  in  session,  certified  the  com- 
missioners that  "they  did  not  understand  they' were 
called  to  make  a  present  war  against  the  Dutch." 
This  action  of  the  General  Court  expressed  the  gen- 
eral sentiment  of  its*  constituency.  Less  irritated 
against  the  Dutch  on  account  of  previous  injuries,  and 
less  exposed  to  present  danger,  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  less  ready  to  believe  that  war  was  im- 
peratively necessary  and  unquestionably  just. 

Not  content  with  the  communication  they  had  made, 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  proceeded  to  put 
on  record  a  declaration  that  the  commissioners  had  no 
power  by  the  Articles  of  Agreement  to  determine  the 
justice  of  an  offensive  or  vindictive  war  and  to  en- 
gage the  colonies  therein.  This  declaration  gave  great 
offence  to  the  other  colonies,  particularly  to  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven,  where  the  spirit  of  war  was  most 
rife :  — 

"At  a  general  court  held  at  New  Haven  for  the  jurisdiction 
the  29th  of  June,  1653,  the  governor  acquainted  the  Court  with 
what  was  done  at  the  commission  last  at  Boston,  concerning  the 
war  propounded  against  the  Dutch,  and  particularly  with  an  in- 
terpretation of  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts  of  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  wherein  they  declare  that  the  commis- 
sioners have  not  power  to.  act  so  far  in  matters  of  that  nature  as 
to  make  an  offensive  war.  These  writings  were  read;  and  the 
interpretation  was  much  disliked  by  the  Court,  knowing  that  if 
it  stood,  the  combination  of  the  colonies  must  be  broken,  or  made 
useless. 

**  The  governor  also  acquainted  the  Court  with  a  late  conference 
which  himself,  Capt.  Astwood,  and  Mr.  Leete  have  had  with  the 
magistrates  and  General  Court  of  Connecticut  jurisdiction,  and 
that  they  have  agreed  to  send  the  mind  of  both  the  General  Courts 


390  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

to  the  Massachusetts  concerning  that  interpretation  (that  from  this 
colony  the  Court  desired  the  governor  to  draw  up,  which  is  here- 
after entered^  and  also  again  to  desire  aid  and  assistance  from 
them  in  this  undertaking  against  the  Dutch,  according  as  the 
commissioners  had  agreed,  that  is,  five  hundred  men  from  all 
the  colonies,  with  suitable  provisions  for  such  a  design;  but  if 
that  be  not  yielded,  that  then  they  would  give  leave  that  we  use 
some  means  whereby  volunteers  may  be  procured  out  of  their 
colony,  with  shipping,  victuals,  and  ammunition,  fit  for  that  ser- 
vice. And  the  better  to  further  and  accomplish  it,  it  is  agreed 
that  four  persons  shall  be  sent  as  agents  or  commissioners  from 
the  two  general  courts;  that  is,  two  from  Connecticut  and  two 
from  hence.  Wherefore  the  Court  did  now  choose  and  appoint 
Mr.  William  Leete,  one  of  the  magistrates  of  this  jurisdiction, 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Jordan,  one  of  the  deputies  for  the  General 
Court  for  Guilford,  for  this  service,  who  are  to  have  commission 
and  instructions  from  this  Court  to  authorize  and  direct  them  to 
act  and  negotiate  in  this  business,  and  to  give  the  commissioners 
a  call  to  sit  here  at  New  Haven  the  first  or  second  Thursday  in 
August  next,  which  answer  to  the  Massachusetts  declaration,  and 
the  commissions  and  instructions  are  as  followeth :  — 

"  The  Answer  of  this  General  Court  to  the  Massachusetts 

Declaration, 

"Upon  information  of  a  question  propounded  by  the  honored 
General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts  concerning  the  power  of 
the  commissioners  to  determine  the  justice  of  an  offensive  war 
and  the  answer  of  the  committee  thereto,  this  Court  hath  con- 
sidered and  compared  the  Articles  of  Confederation  and  the  inter- 
pretation together,  and  desire  they  may,  without  offence,  express 
their  thoughts  and  apprehensions  in  the  case. 

"The  confederation  betwixt  the  colonics  was  no  rash  and 
sudden  engagement ;  it  had  been  several  years  under  considera- 
tion. In  anno  1638  there  was  a  meeting  at  Cambridge  about  it, 
but  some  things  being  then  propounded  inconvenient  for  the  lesser 
colonies,  that  conference  ended  without  fruit,  and  the  four  juris- 
dictions, though  knit  together  in  affections,  stood,  in  reference  one 
to  another,  loose  and  free  from  any  express  covenant  or  combina- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  39 1 

tion,  till,  upon  a  new  invitation  and  propositions  from  the  Massa« 
chusetts,  another  meeting  was  appointed  at  Boston,  in  May,  1643; 
so  that  magistrates,  deputies,  and  freemen,  especially  those  of  the 
Massachusetts,  had  about  five  years'  time  to  consider  what  they 
were  about,  the  compass  and  consequences  of  such  a  consociation, 
and  probably  did  improve  it,  and  saw  cause  to  renew  the  treaty  so 
long  suspended. 

"  2.  After  a  large  and  serious  debate  of  the  committee  chosen 
and  empowered  by  the  several  jurisdictions  (the  General  Court  for 
the  Massachusetts,  then  sitting  at  Boston,  and  being  acquainted, 
and  from  time  to  time  advised  with,  concerning  all  and  every  article 
treated  of),  the  19th  of  May,  1643,  a  firm  agreement  was  made  and 
concluded,  wherein  the  other  jurisdictions,  by  their  deputies,  the 
Massachusetts,  both  by  their  deputies,  and  by  the  General  Court, 
considering  that  we  were  all  of  one  nation  and  religion,  and  all  of 
us  came  into  these  parts  ot  America  with  one  and  the  same  end 
and  aim«  and  could  it  have  been  done  with  conveniency,  had  com- 
municated in  one  government  and  jurisdiction,  thought  it  their 
bounden  duty,  without  further  delay,  to  enter  Into  such  a  present 
consociation  as  whereby  the  four  jurisdictions  might  be,  and  con- 
tinue, one,  according  to  the  tenor  and  true  meaning  of  the  Articles 
of  Agreement ;  and  that  thenceforth  they  all  be,  and  be  called  by 
the  name  of,  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England. 

"  3.  Though  all  the  plantations  which  already  are,  or  hereafter 
may  be,  duly  settled  within  the  limits  of  each  of  these  four  colo- 
nies, are  to  be,  and  forever  to  remain,  under  the  government  of 
the  same,  and  each  colony  to  have  peculiar  jurisdiction  within 
itself  as  an  entire  body,  as  expressed  in  the  third  and  sixth 
articles,  yet  till  now  that  was  never  understood  to  cross  or 
abate  the  power  of  the  commissioners  in  things  proper  to  the 
confederation.  The  colonies  uniting  did,  for  themselves  and  their 
posterities,  enter  into  a  perpetual  league  of  friendship  and  amity, 
for  offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  succor,  upon  all  just 
occasions  for  the  joint  safety  and  welfare,  as  in  the  second  article. 
The  charge  of  all  just  wars,  whether  offensive  or  defensive,  to  be 
borne  by  the  four  colonies  in  their  several  proportions ;  and  the 
advantage  of  all  such  wars  (if  God  give  a  blessing)  to  be  accord- 
ingly divided,  as  in  the  fourth  article ;  and  for  the  managing  and 


392  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

concluding  all  such  affairs,  by  express  agreement,  eight  commis- 
sioners are  to  be  chosen  (all  in  church  fellowship,  and  all  to  bring 
full  power  from  their  several  general  courts),  namely,  two  by  and 
out  of  each  colony,  to  hear  and  examine,  weigh  and  determine,  all 
affairs  of  war  and  peace,  leagues,  aids,  charges,  and  numbers  of 
men  for  war,  division  of  spoils,  or  whatever  is  gotten  by  conquest, 
receiving  of  more  confederates  or  plantations  into  combination 
with  any  of  these  confederates,  and  all  things  of  like  nature  which 
are  the  proper  concomitants  or  consequents  of  such  a  confedera- 
tion foV  amity,  offence,  or  defence;  and  if  these  eight  commis- 
sioners, when  they  meet,  agree  not,  any  six  of  them  agreeing  have 
power  to  settle  and  determine  the  business  in  question ;  but  if  six 
do  not  agree,  then  such  propositions,  with  their  reasons,  to  be  sent 
and  referred  to  the  four  general  courts,  as  in  the  sixth  article. 
They  were  also  to  endeavor  to  frame  and  establish  agreements 
and  orders  in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature,  wherein  the  planta- 
tions are  interested,  for  preserving  peace  among  themselves,  and 
preventing  (as  much  as  may  be)  all  occasions  of  war  or  differences 
with  others,  as  about  the  speedy  passage  of  justice  in  each  juris- 
diction to  all  the  confederates  equally  as  to  their  own,  as  more 
largely  appears  in  th^  eighth  article,  so  that  certainly,  and  without 
question,  these  four  colonies  have,  by  a  perpetual  covenant,  invested 
the  commissioners  with  power  suiting  such  a  confederation,  and 
without  it  the  combination  must  either  break  or  prove  useless. 

"4.  As  questions  and  scruples  may  arise  and  grow  about  the 
justice  of  an  offensive  war,  so  conscience  may  be  exercised  in  a 
defensive  war,  and  concerning  leagues  and  aids.  Jehoshaphat,  the 
king  of  Judah,  sinned,  and  was  rebuked  by  two  prophets,  Jehu  and 
Eliezcr,  for  joining  with  and  helping  Ahab  and  Ahaziah,  kings  of 
Israel.  If,  therefore,  the  General  Court  for  the  Massachusetts  do 
now  conceive  and  interpret  that  the  power  given  to  tlie  commis- 
sioners (men  of  the  same  nation,  of  the  same  religion,  members  of 
approved  churches,  who  came  into  these  parts  for  the  same  ends 
and  spiritual  aims,  and  who  had  communicated  in  one  and  the  same 
government  and  jurisdiction,  had  not  distance  of  place  hindered) 
in  an  offensive  war  is  a  contradiction  and  absurdity  in  policy,  a 
scandal  to  religion,  a  violation  of  fundamental  law,  a  bondage,  and 
prostituting  itself  to  strangers,  and  so  forth,  they  may,  at  their 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT.  393 

next  meeting,  upon  the  same  or  like  grounds  conclude  against 
leagues,  aids,  a  defensive  war,  and  other  parts  of  trust  and  power 
wherewith  the  commissioners  by  the  articles  are  invested,  and  the 
three  other  colonies  or  the  general  court  for  any  one  of  them  may 
do  the  like  ;  but  we  fear  in  so  doing  we  shall  draw  guilt  upon  our- 
selves in  violating  a  perpetual  league,  so  deliberately  and  firmly 
made,  be  covenant-breakers,  and  provoke  God  against  us. 

"5.  It  may  be  considered  when  a  just  war  in  ordinary  cases 
may  be  called  offensive  or  vindictive.  When  God  gave  the  land 
of  Canaan,  their  cities,  vineyards,  and  so  forth,  to  the  children  of 
Israel,  Israel  was  the  staff  or  sword  in  God's  hand,  by  his  appoint- 
ment to  punish  a  rebellious  people,  the  measure  of  whose  sins  was 
then  full ;  but  ordinarily  and  in  reference  to  men,  lawful  wars  are 
to  defend,  recover,  secure,  or  get  satisfaction,  in  case  of  just 
possessions  or  rights  injuriously  invaded,  seized,  or  endangered  by 
others,  with  respect  to  persons,  estates,  or  honors,  when  other 
means  will  not  serve:  such  a  war  was  David's  against  the  children 
of  Ammon  (2  Sam.  x.) ;  and  such,  we  conceive,  was  the  late  war 
of  England  against  Scotland,  and  their  present  war  against  the 
Dutch. 

"  6.  Such  leagues  and  confederations  have  been  made  and  con- 
tinued among  other  people  and  provinces,  some  in  a  subordination, 
some  in  a  consociation,  upon  some  several  articles  and  covenants, 
wherein  power  hath  been  granted,  and  yet  customs,  privileges, 
and  parts  of  government  reserved  for  the  safety  of  the  whole  and 
conveniency  of  the  parts,  as  may  appear  in  the  different  agree- 
ments and  settlements  of  the  Netherland  Provinces,  and  the  con- 
federations of  the  cantons  of  the  Switzers. 

"  7.  We  know  of  no  fundamental  law  of  these  colonies  violated 
or  impaired  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  as  (till  now,  we  con- 
ceive) they  have  been  clearly  and  fully  understood  by  the  whole 
committee  and  by  the  General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts,  whose 
heads  and  hands  were  in  the  contriving  and  framing  of  them ;  nor 
is  there  any  such  delegating  of  others,  especially  of  strangers,  as 
is  intimated.  The  freemen  of  the  colonies  generally  choose  their 
own  respective  commissioners,  such  as  in  whom  they  may  confide, 
and  accordingly  they  are  invested  with  power  according  to  the 
combination  covenant,  and  for  these  ten  years  we  have  found  the 


394  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

blessing  of  God  upon  our  uniting,  and  his  presence  and  assistance 
upon  the  meetings  and  conclusions  of  the  commissioners. 

"  8.  According  to  the  intent  of  the  colonies  and  contrivers  of 
the  confederation,  hath  been  the  practice  in  all  former  times.  The 
commissioners  have  met  and  treated  with  power  only  limited  to 
the  articles.  The  Indians,  French,  and  Dutch,  have  had  recourse 
to  them  in  all  matters  of  war,  leagues,  aids,  and  so  forth,  from 
time  to  time ;  but  this  most  clearly  appears  in  anno  1645,  when  the 
meeting  was  at  Boston,  and  the  General  Court  for  the  Massachu- 
setts had  some  agitations  with  the  commissioners  about  an  ofiFen- 
sive  war  with  the  Narraganset  Indians,  if  the  war  now  propounded 
against  the  Dutch  may  be  called  offensive.  The  General  Court 
would  have  sent  a  commission  after  the  soldiers  gone  from  Boston, 
but  not  yet  out  of  the  jurisdiction,  conceiving  that  if  otherwise  any 
blood  should  be  shed,  the  actors  might  be  called  to  account  for  it. 
It  was  answered  that  though  it  did  belong  to  the  authority  of  the 
several  jurisdictions  (after  the  war  and  number  of  men  was  agreed 
by  the  commissioners)  to  raise  the  men  and  provide  means  to 
carry  it  on,  yet  the  proceeding  of  the  commissioners  and  the  com- 
mission given  was  as  sufficient  as  if  it  had  been  done  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court;  for. 

First,  It  was  a  case  of  such  urgent  necessity  as  could  not  stay 
the  calling  of  a  court  or  council. 

Secondly,  In  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  power  is  given  to 
the  commissioners  to  consult,  order,  and  determine,  all  affairs  of 
war,  and  the  word  determine  comprehends  all  acts  of  authority 
belonging  thereto. 

Thirdly,  The  commissioners  are  the  sole  judges  of  the  neces- 
sity of  the  expedition. 

Fourthly,  The  General  Court  have  made  their  commissioners 
their  sole  counsel  for  these  affairs. 

Fifthly,  Their  counsels  could  not  have  had  their  due  effect, 
except  they  had  power  to  proceed  in  this  case  as  they  have  done, 
which  were  to  make  the  commissioners'  power  and  the  main  end 
of  their  confederation  to  be  frustrate,  and  that  merely  for  observ- 
ing a  ceremony. 

Sixthly,  The  commissioners  having  had  the  sole  power  to  man- 
age the  war  for  number  of  men,  time,  place,  and  so  forth,  they  only 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  395 

know  their  own  counsels  and  determinations,  and  therefore  none 
can  grant  commissioners  to  act  according  to  these  but  themselves. 

Seventhly,  To  send  a  new  commission  after  them  or  any  con- 
firmation of  that  which  they  have,  would  cast  blame  upon  the 
commissioners,  and  weaken  their  power,  as  if  they  had  proceeded 
unwarrantably. 

After  much  time  spent  in  such  agitations,  the  General  Court  of 
the  Massachusetts  allowed  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners 
for  the  matter,  and  further  agreed  that  it  did  belong  to  the  commis- 
sioners only,  to  appoint  one  to  have  command  in  chief  over  all  the 
forces  sent  from  the  several  colonies. 

"9.  In  the  uniting  of  these  colonies,  it  was  agreed  and  cov- 
enanted that  if  any  of  the  confederates  shall  hereafter  break  any 
of  these  present  articles,  or  be  any  other  way  injurious  to  any 
one  of  the  other  jurisdictions,  such  breach  of  agreement  or  injury 
shall  be  duly  considered  and  ordered  by  the  commissioners  for  the 
other  jurisdictions,  that  both  peace  and  this  present  confederation 
may  be  entirely  preserved  without  violation,  as  in  the  eleventh 
article.  And  it  is  a  rule  in  law  concerning  legal  acts,  that  all 
expressions  and  sentences,  though  of  a  doubtful  construction,  be 
understood  for  the  confirming  of  them  as  far  as  rationally  may  be. 
Then  certainly  in  confederations  and  covenants,  blood  may  not 
be  drawn  out  by  forced  interpretations  contrary  to  clear  words, 
sentences,  the  scope  and  purpose  of  all  the  articles,  and  to  the 
practice  of  all  time  since,  to  nullify  and  infringe  them. 

"  10.  The  premises  considered,  we  conceive  the  interpretation 
made  by  the  committee  and  approved  both  by  the  magistrates  and 
deputies  of  the  General  Court  for  the  Massachusetts  apparently 
tends  to  the  breaking  of  the  league  of  confederation  betwixt  the 
colonies ;  and  though,  by  an  order  of  June  3d,  1653,  they  declare 
they  have  no  such  intention,  that  satisfies  no  more  than  if  a  man 
maimed  and  made  forever  useless  should  be  told  his  life  for  a 
time  should  be  spared.  This  colony  conceiveth  (and  is  accord- 
ingly affected)  that  it  had  been  much  better  for  them  never  to  have 
combined.  They  are  more  exposed  to  enemies  and  dangers  now 
than  before,  while  that  interpretation  stands  in  force  at  the  Massa- 
chusetts. The  commissioners  from  thence  are  like  to  be  sent 
with  a  limited  commission,  and  no  fruit  can  be  expected  from  such 


396  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

a  meeting;  all  they  can  do  is  to  look  up  to  Him  to  whom  all  the 
shields  of  the  earth  belong,  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  seek  advice 
and  help  elsewhere." 

"  The  commission  and  instructions  of  Mr.  William  Leete^  one 
of  the  magistrates  for  New  Haven  jurisdiction^  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Jordan^  one  of  the  deputies  for  the  General  Court  of  the  same 
jurisdiction^  joined  to  two  agents  or  commissioners  of  Connecti" 
cut  J  sent  as  a  committee  to  treat  with  the  honorable  colony  of  the 
Massachusetts^  as  hereunder  is  more  particularly  expressed. 

"Whereas  all  the  confederated  colonies,  but  especially  these 
two  smaller  and  more  westerly  jurisdictions,  are  in  imminent  dan- 
ger of  an  invasion  of  war,  both  from  the  Dutch  (if  once  they  be 
strengthened  with  forces,  either  from  the  Netherlands  or  else- 
where) and  from  the  Indians  hired  and  engaged  by  the  Dutch  (as 
by  much  Indian  testimony  is  proved)  to  cut  off  the  English,  not 
only  of  Hempstead,  Middleborough,  &c.,  within  the  Dutch  limits, 
who  are  threatened  and  exposed  to  ruin  for  their  faithfulness 
to  the  English  nation  and  their  countrymen  in  these  parts,  but 
the  plantations  within  the  United  Colonies ;  you  are  to  treat  with 
the  governor,  council,  commissioners,  and  General  Court  of  the 
Massachusetts,  or  any  of  them,  as  you  find  or  may  procure  oppor- 
tunity, that,  for  the  honor  of  the  English  nation,  the  peace  and 
safety  of  the  English  in  all  this  part  of  America,  —  by  war,  if  no 
other  means  will  serve,  —  the  Dutch,  at  and  about  Manhatoes,  who 
have  been  and  still  are  likely  to  prove,  injurious  and  dangerous 
neighbors,  may  be  removed,  and  that  (according  to  the  commis- 
sioners' late  agreement  at  Boston)  five  hundred  men  may  be  speedily 
raised  .out  of  the  four  colonies  in  proportion  then  settled,  and, 
without  delay,  employed  in  this  public  service. 

"  But  if  the  governor,  council,  commissioners,  General  Court, 
&c.,  as  above,  think  fit  to  increase  that  number  (the  Dutch  being 
now  more  strongly  fortified),  or  upon  other  considerations  much 
importing  the  welfare  of  the  whole  confederation  in  these  times  of 
exercise,  these  two  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  do 
jointly  desire  that  without  offence  three  magistrates  of  this  juris- 
diction may  give  a  call,  according  to  the  fifth  article  in  the  Con- 
federation, to  the  commissioners,  to  meet  at  New  Haven,  the  fourth 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  397 

or  eleventh  day  of  August  next,  all  invested  with  full  power  from 
their  several  jurisdictions  according  to  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion, without  any  other  limits  than  have  hitherto  been  used. 

"  The  General  Court  have  also,  as  you  know,  perused  and  con- 
sidered the  interpretation  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  made 
by  a  committee  at  Boston,  and  approved  both  by  magistrates  and 
deputies  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Court,  and  by  way  of 
answer,  do  now  return  their  apprehensions  enclosed  in  a  letter  to 
the  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  commissioners  of  that  colony, 
which  we  herewith  deliver  to  you,  and  you  are  to  present  it  to 
the  governor,  &c.,  that  if  God  bless  our  and  your  endeavors^  the 
late  interpretation  may  be  recalled,  and  the  confederation  settled 
according  to  the  first  intendment,  and  the  progress  it  hath  had  in 
the  hands  of  the  commissioners  hitherto  with  a  blessing.  We 
commend  you  to  Him  who  can  prosper  both  your  travel  and  occa- 
sions, and  rest. 

''By  the  General  Court  for  New  Haven  Colony, 

"  The  29th  June,  1653. 

"Francis  Newman,  Secretary^'* 

^^  Further  instructions  for  Mr,  Leete  and  Mr,  Jordany  if  they 
cannot  prevail  in  the  former  propositions, 

"  You  are  to  propound  and  desire  from  the  governor,  &c.,  lib- 
erty to  strike  up  a  drum,  or  in  some  other  way  to  treat  for  the 
raising  of  volunteers  to  assist  these  two  colonies  in  an  expedition 
for  their  safety ;  and,  if  leave  be  granted  (for  we  would  give  no 
offenceX  you  may  speak  with  such  military  officers  in  whom  you 
may  confide,  for  the  better  furtherance  of  the  work. 

"By  the  General  Court  for  New  Haven  Colony, 

•'  The  a9th  June,  1653. 

"Francis  Newman,  Secretary,^* 

"  Further  instructions  for  Mr,  William  Leete  and  Mr,  Thomas 
yordan,  if  they  cannot  prevail  in  the  former  propositions, 

"  I.  For  the  number,  they  may  be  two,  three,  or  four  hundred 
men,  provided  that  such  agreements  and  conclusions  may  be 
firmly  settled  in  writing,  that  these  two  colonics  may  with  con- 


398  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

veniency  send  such  a  proportion  of  men  as  they  may  spare,  that 
they  may  have  at  least  an  equal  share,  both  in  power  to  order  and 
command  in  all  affairs,  and  in  the  success  and  advantage  of  the 
business  in  all  respects,  if  Cod  give  a  blessing ;  but  herein  they 
that  by  agreement  stay  with  the  stuff,  or  be  ordered  as  a  reserve 
or  an  auxiliary  army  to  guard  the  plantations,  or  to  watch  against 
any  invasions  or  assaults  of  the  Indians  upon  the  plantations,  to 
be  reckoned  as  part  of  our  number,  and  to  share  equally  with  the 
rest;  and  herein  due  consideration  be  had  of  shipping  for  the 
service,  what  great  guns  will  be  necessary,  with  suitable  provis- 
ion, with  victuals,  &c. ;  and  you  will  warily  consider  the  quality 
and  disposition  of  the  men  with  whom  you  treat,  and  their  com- 
pany they  are  like  to  bring,  that  they  be  such  as  with  whom  we 
may  join  in  the  same  way,  both  of  church  administration  and  civil 
government ;  we  would  be  loath  to  bring  Rhode  Island  or  any  of 
that  stamp  or  frame  nearer  to  us. 

"2.  If  ships  should  come  from  England,  bringing  such  com- 
missions as  may  suit  the  service  propounded,  while  you  are  in 
those  parts,  it  is  hereby  left  to  your  discretion  to  treat  and  con- 
clude with  them  for  the  public  good,  according  to  the  tenor  of 
your  instructions,  though  we  cannot  prescribe  all  particulars. 

"3.  In  case  the  governor,  &c.,  should  send  an  answer  to  all 
propounded,  in  a  letter  sealed,  neither  treating  nor  acquainting 
you  with  the  contents,  you  may,  in  time  and  place  convenient,  avoid- 
ing offence,  open  the  letter,  and  consider  what  is  written,  that  you 
may  the  better  proceed  in  any  thing  to  be  done  by  you  according 
to  directions  now  given ;  and  if  any  letters  come  from  England, 
which  you  may  rationally  conceive  concern  public  affairs,  you  are 
to  send  them  with  all  speed,  though  you  hire  a  messenger.  The 
wise  and  good  God  assist  you  according  to  the  weight  of  your 
work.    We  rest 

"By  the  General  Court  for  New  Haven  Colony, 

"June  29,  1653. 

"Francis  Newman,  Secretary^'' 

These  documents  from  the  pen  of  Gov.  Eaton  will 
perhaps  acquaint  the  reader  as  well  and  as  briefly  as  it 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT   399 

were  possible  to  do  it,  with  the  nature  of  the  con- 
troversy which  arose  between  New  Haven  and  Massa- 
chusetts. The  errand  of  Leete  and  Jordan  and  their 
associates  from  Connecticut  produced  no  immediate 
fruit,  the  governor  and  council  of  Massachusetts  claim- 
ing that  they  could  do  nothing  in  the  vacation  of  the 
General  Court,  but  offering  to  assemble  the  court  on 
the  thirtieth  day  of  August,  a  few  days  before  the  next 
meeting  of  the  commissioners. 

When  the  commissioners  met  in  September,  a  com- 
munication was  received  from  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  to  the  intent  that,  having  considered  the 
letters  and  papers  from  the  General  Courts  of  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven,  they  thought  it  unjust  to  be  placed 
"under  a  dilemma  either  to  act  without  satisfaction 
against  their  light,  or  to  be  accounted  covenant-break- 
ers." After  further  correspondence,  both  parties  re- 
taining as  firmly  as  ever  their  antagonistic  position, 
the  commissioners  determined  to  adjourn  sine  die,  and 
return  without  loss  of  time  to  their  other  occasions. 
This  would  have  been  practically  a  dissolution  of  the 
confederation.  The  General  Court,  learning  that  the 
commissioners  were  about  to  disperse,  manifested  a 
more  conciliatory  spirit,  voting,  "That  by  the  Articles 
of  Confederation,  so  far  as  the  determinations  of  the 
commissioners  are  just,  and  according  to  God,  the  sev- 
eral colonies  are  bound  before  God  and  man  to  act 
accordingly,  and  that  they  sin  and  break  covenant  if 
they  do  not ;  but  otherwise  we  judge  we  are  not  bound, 
neither  before  God  nor  men." 

In  view  of  this  communication,  the  commissioners 
were  so  far  pacified  that  they  proceeded  to  business, 


4CX)  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"referring  all  further  questions  to  the  addresses  the 
Massachusetts  shall  please  to  make  to  the  other  Gen- 
eral Courts."     But  the  very  first  matter  presented  for 
%  their  consideration  renewed  the  old  dispute.     It  was  a 

complaint  that  Ninigret  had  made  a  hostile  raid  upon 
the  Indians  of  Long  Island,  tributaries  and  friends  of 
thq  English,  in  which  two  sachems  and  about  thirty 
other  Indians  were  slain,  and  divers  women  taken  cap- 
tive. The  commissioners  immediately  despatched  mes- 
sengers to  bring  Ninigret's  answxr  to  this  complaint. 
Upon  return  of  the  messengers,  bringing  an  insolent 
reply  from  Ninigret,  and  reporting  that  he  had  allowed 
his  men  to  insult  and  threaten  them,  the  commissioners 
declared  war  against  him,  and  determined  to  raise  for 
its  prosecution  an  army  of  250  men. 

In  reply  to  the  requisition  on  Massachusetts  for  her 
contingent  of  166  soldiers,  the  commissioners  received 
the  following  paper :  — 

"In  answer  to  a  letter  of  the  honored  commissioners  for  raising 
forces  to  make  a  present  war  against  Ninigret ;  the  council  for  the 
Massachusetts  assembled  at  Boston,  the  24th  of  September,  1653, 
taking  into  their  consideration  the  votes  of  the  commissioners  for 
raising  250  men  to  make  war  upon  Ninigret,  and  having  perused 
the  grounds  and  reasons  thereunto  presented  in  their  papers,  do 
not  see  sufficient  grounds  either  from  any  obligation  of  the  Eng- 
lish towards  the  Long  Islanders,  or  from  the  usage  the  messengers 
received  from  the  Indians,  or  from  any  other  motive  presented  unto 
our  consideration,  or  from  all  of  them ;  and  therefore  dare  not 
to  exercise  our  authority  to  levy  force  within  our  jurisdiction  to 
undertake  a  present  war  against  the  said  Ninigret." 

Upon  receipt  of  this  communication,  the  commis- 
sioners protested  that  by  this  overt  act  "the   Massa- 


HISTORY  OF  THE   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT  4OI 

chusetts  have  actually  broken  their  covenant."  Re- 
senting this  imputation,  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts addressed  letters  to  the  General  Courts  of 
the  other  colonies,  proposing  that  "a  committee  be 
chosen  by  each  jurisdiction  to  treat  and  agree  upon 
such  explanation  or  reconciliation  of  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  as  shall  be  consistent  with  our  true 
meaning,  the  nature  of  the  confederacy,  and  the  power 
and  authority  of  every  government." 

The  General  Court  of  New  Haven,  upon  receipt  of 
this  communication  and  the  report  which  their  commis- 
sioners made  of  "the  debate  they  had  for  ten  days  with 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court  before  they  could  sit 
as  commissioners,  and  after  with  what  they  did  when 
the  commissioners  sat,"  declared  that  they  saw  no 
cause  to  choose  any  committee  for  the  purpose  men- 
tioned. 

"  The  Articles  of  Confederation  in  their  judgment  want  neither 
alteration  nor  explanation,  and  they  are  fully  satisfied  in  them  as 
they  are."  **  What  the  commissioners  of  this  colony  did  the  Court 
approved  ;  but  considering  what  the  Massachusetts  General  Court 
and  council  have  done,  this  Court  all  agreed,  and  cannot  but  declare 
that  they  have  broken  their  covenant  with  us  in  acting  directly 
contrary  to  the  Articles  of  Confederation ;  upon  which  considera- 
tion this  Court  see  themselves  called  to  seek  for  help  elsewhere, 
and  can  conclude  of  no  better  way  than  to  make  their  addresses  to 
the  State  of  England." 

The  letter  in  which  the  Court  communicated  to  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  the  declarations  thus 
recorded,  was,  in  the  first  place,  sent  to  Hartford^  and, 
being  approved  by  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut, 
was,  by  their  direction,  signed  by  the  secretar}'  of  that 


402  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

colony,  as  well  as  by  the  secretary  of  New  Haven.  The 
General  Court  of  Plymouth,  some  months  afterward, 
replied  to  Massachusetts  in  a  communication  of  similar 
import,  but  doubtless  more  pungent  by  reason  of  the 
indisputable  disinterestedness  of  that  colony.  They 
say:  — 

"  The  unexpected  and  less  welcome  intelligence  that  we  received 
upon  the  return  of  our  commissioners  from  their  last  and  most  un- 
comfortable meeting  hath  administered  just  ground  to  us  to  let  you 
understand  how  sadly  we  resent,  and  how  deeply  we  are  aftected 
with,  that  sad  breach  of  the  confederation,  on  your  part  acted, 
especially  at  such  a  time  as  this,  wherein  our  enemies  may  be  occa- 
sioned not  only  to  insult  over  us,  but  also  to  reproach  the  name  of 
God  and  his  ways  which  we  profess  :  which,  upon  whose  account 
it  will  be  charged,  we  leave  to  consideration,  and  pass  on  to  express 
our  thoughts  in  answer  to  yours  dated  the  13th  of  September,  1653, 
which,  after  due  consideration,  we  conceive  (reserving  due  respects 
to  yourselves  dissenting)  that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  are  so 
full  and  plain  that  they  occasion  not  any  such  queries  for  their  full 
explanation,  or  meeting  of  a  committee  for  such  a  purpose,  it  seem- 
ing unto  us  to  be  obvious  to  any  impartial  eye,  that,  by  the  said 
articles,  the  commissioners  are  the  representatives  of  the  several 
colonies,  and  therefore  what  they  Jict  and  determine,  according  to 
that  power  given  them  in  such  matters  as  are  expressly  included 
in  the  said  articles,  may  justly  be  interpreted  as  the  sense,  reason, 
and  determination  of  the  several  jurisdictions  which  have  sub- 
stituted them  thereunto,  and  the  several  colonies  may  and  ought  to 
acquiesce  in  as  if  themselves  had  done  \V* 

When  the  time  for  the  next  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners was  near,  the  question  was  raised  in  the  General 
Court  at  New  Haven,  whether  commissioners  should  be 
chosen.     The  result  of  the  debate  is  thus  recorded  :  — 

"  The  Court,  having  found  such  ill  fruit  from  the  Massachusetts, 
of  the  two  former  meetings,  are  discouraged  to  send  ;  yet  tli»it  they 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT.  403 

might  show  themselves  followers  of  peace,  and  that  they  earnestly 
desire  to  continue  their  confederation  upon  the  terms  it  first  began, 
and  for  sundry  years  hath  been  carried  on,  did  agree  and  choose 
the  governor  and  Francis  Newman  commissioners  for  the  year 
ensuing,  and  particularly  for  the  next  meeting  at  Hartford,  if  it 
hold;  and  Mr.  Leete  and  Mr.  Goodyear  are  chosen  to  supply,  if 
the  providence  of  God  order  it  so  that  one  or  both  of  the  others 
should  be  hindered ;  but  with  this  direction  from  the  Court,  that  if 
the  mind  of  the  Massachusetts  remain  as  they  have  formerly 
declared,  which  hath  made  the  other  three  colonies  look  upon  the 
confederation  as  broken  by  the  Massachusetts,  they  conceive  there 
can  be  no  fruit  of  their  meeting,  but  only  to  consider  the  eleventh 
article,  and  require  such  satisfaction  from  the  delinquent  cplony  as 
they  shall  judge  meet." 

No  sooner  had  the  commissioners  assembled  than 
they  "  fell  upon  a  debate  of  the  late  differences  betwixt 
the  Massachusetts  and  the  other  colonies,  in  reference 
to  the  government  of  the  Massachusetts*  declaration  or 
interpretation  of  the  articles,  bearing  date  June  the  2d, 
1653,  and  their  not  acting  by  raising  of  forces  against 
Ninigret  in  September  last,  according  to  the  determina- 
tion of  the  commissioners ;  and,  after  some  agitations 
and  writing  about  the  same,  the  commissioners  for  the 
Massachusetts  presented  the  ensuing  writing  :  —  " 

**  To  the  intent  all  former  differences  and  offences  may  be  issued, 
determined,  and  forgotten,  betwixt  the  Massachusetts  and  the  rest 
of  the  confederate  colonies,  we  do  hereby  profess  it  to  be  our 
judgment,  and  do  believe  it  to  be  the  judgment  of  our  General 
Ceurt  that  the  commissioners,  or  six  of  them,  have  power,  accord- 
ing to  the  articles,  to  determine  the  justice  of  all  wars,  &c. ;  that 
our  General  Court  hath  and  doth  recall  that  interpretation  of  the 
articles  which  thev  sent  to  the  commissioners  at  Boston,  dated  the 
2d  of  June,  1653,  as  it  appears  by  that  interpretation  and  conces- 
sion of  our  Court  presented  to  the  commissioners  in  September 
last,  and  do  acknowledge  themselves  bound  to  execute  the  deter- 


404  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

minations  of  the  commissioners,  according  to  the  literal  sense  and 
true  meaning  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  so  far  as  the  said 
determinations  are  in  themselves  just,  and  according  to  God." 

Thus  ended  the  open  quarrel  between  Massachusetts 
and  the  other  colonies.  But  when  the  commissioners, 
proceeding  to  make  war  upon  Ninigret,  gave  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  commander-in-chief  to  Massachusetts, 
Major  Willard,  their  appointee,  carried  out  the  policy  of 
his  colony  almost  as  closely  as  if  no  army  had  been 
sent.  The  commissioners  censured  him,  but  he  doubt- 
less felt  assured  that  in  his  own  colony  his  conduct  was 
approved.  News  of  peace  between  England  and  Hol- 
land having  arrived  before  Massachusetts  retracted  her 
offensive  interpretation  of  the  articles,  the  subject  of 
hostilities  against  the  Dutch  was  no  more  agitated,  and 
gradually  the  United  Colonies  settled  into  tranquillity. 

During  this  quarrel  with  Massachusetts,  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  had  been  vexed  with  internal  dissen- 
sion. As  these  colonies  had  been  more  clamorous  for 
war  than  those  more  remote  from  the  Dutch,  so  the 
zeal  of  those  plantations  in  these  colonies  which  were 
most  exposed  to  danger  exceeded  that  of  others.  The 
people  of  Stamford  and  Fairfield  were  not  only  ready 
to  engage  in  the  fight  with  such  forces  as  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  might  be  able  to  raise,  but  were  en- 
raged because  the  authorities  of  their  respective  colo- 
nies were  not  as  rash  as  themselves.  Trumbull  says, 
"The  town  of  Fairfield  held  a  meeting  on  the  subject, 
and  determined  to  prosecute  the  war.  They  appointed 
Mr.  Ludlow  commander-in-chief.  He  was  the  centre  of 
the  evidence  against  the  Dutch ;   had  been  one  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT    4OS 

commissioners  at  the  several  meetings  relative  to  the 
affair ;  had  been  zealous  and  active  for  the  war ;  and, 
conceiving  himself  and  the  town  in  imminent  danger 
unless  the  Dutch  could  be  removed  from  the  neighbor- 
hood, too  hastily  accepted  the  appointment/*  But,  as 
Fairfield  belonged  to  Connecticut,  it  is  not  our  task  to 
relate  what  took  place  at  Fairfield,  nor  what  happened 
in  consequence  to  Mr.  Ludlow.  Stamford,  in  the  New 
Haven  colony,  wrote  to  the  colonial  authorities,  "  stir- 
ring up  to  raise  volunteers  to  go  against  the  Dutch,  and 
that  themselves  will  send  forth  ten  men  well  furnished 
for  the  war."  The  governor  communicated  this  letter 
to  the  General  Court,  Nov.  22,  1653,  and,  at  the  same 
time  a  letter  from  Mr.  Ludlow,  giving  information  of 
the  action  taken  by  Fairfield  ;  and  an  anonymous  letter 
to  Robert  Bassett  of  Stamford,  "  which  is  to  stir  up  to 
stand  for  the  State  of  England,  as  they  pretend,  and 
to  stand  for  their  liberties,  that  they  may  all  have  their 
votes,  and  shake  off  the  yoke  of  government  they  have 
been  under  in  this  jurisdiction."  These  writings  having 
been  read :  — 

**  The  Court  considered  whether  they  are  called  at  this  time  to 
send  forth  men  against  the  Dutch,  and  after  much  debate  and  con- 
sultation had  with  most  of  the  elders  in  the  jurisdiction,  the  issue 
was,  which  the  Court  by  vote  declared,  that,  considering  the  hazards 
and  dangers  attending  such  a  design,  especially  now,  it  being  so 
near  winter,  and  the  want  of  suitable  vessels,  and  the  like,  they 
see  not  themselves  called  to  vote  for  a  present  war,  but  to  suspend 
a  full  issue  till  Connecticut  jurisdiction  be  acquainted  with  it,  and 
give  notice  what  they  will  do  ;  but  if  they  agree  to  carry  it  on  now, 
then  this  Court  agrees  to  join  with  them,  and  to  meet  again  to  con- 
sider and  order,  as  the  case  may  require." 


r 


406  HISTORY  OF  KEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

At  the  same  court  two  magistrates  who  had  been 
sent  to  Stamford  "to  settle  a  right  understanding  of 
things  for  the  better  quieting  of  their  spirits  who  are 
in  a  mutinous  way,"  reported  that  they  found  the 
people  "  for  the  most  part  full  of  discontent  with  the 
present  government  they  are  under,  pleading  that  they 
might  have  their  free  votes  in  the  choice  of  civil 
officers,  making  objection  against  their  rates,  and  pro- 
pounded to  have  their  charges  of  watching  and  ward- 
ing the  summer  past,  with  some  works  about  their 
meeting-house  for  their  defence,  borne  by  the  jurisdic- 
tion, and  that  they  might  have  twelve  men  sent  them 
at  the  jurisdiction  charge  to  lie  there  all  winter  for 
their  defence,  with  some  other  things  ;  and  after  much 
debate  with  them  to  quiet  them,  which  did  little  prevail 
with  them,  an  order  from  the  committee  of  Parliament 
in  England  sent  to  this  colony  was  read  to  them, 
requiring  them  to  submit  to  the  government  they  are 
under,  which  did  somewhat  allay  their  spirits  for  the 
present,  and  they  desired  further  time  to  consider  of 
things,  and  they  would  in  some  short  timp  send  their 
mind  to  the  governor  in  writing.*' 

A  similar  spirit  of  discontent  prevailed  at  Southold, 
which  was  liable  to  be  attacked  by  Ninigret,  transport- 
ing his  men  across  the  Sound  in  canoes.  John  Youngs, 
a  son  of  the  pastor,  was  the  leader  of  the  disaffected  at 
Southold,  and  was  in  communication  with  Robert  Bas- 
set, the  boldest  and  most  active  of  the  disaffected  at 
Stamford.  Youngs,  Basset,  and  three  other  inhabitants 
of  Stamford,  were  put  under  bonds  "to  attend  their 
oath  of  fidelity  to  the  jurisdiction,  maintain  the  laws 
here  established,   and  not   disturb  the  peace  of  the 


HISTORY  OF   THE   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT,    407 

colony,  or  of  any  plantation  therein."     Each  made  a 
separate  confession. 

"  Concerning  John  Youngs,  he  did  now  acknowledge  that  he 
hath  miscarried  many  ways,  speaking  rash  and  foolish  words,  and 
such  as  have  tended  to  sedition,  was  unsatisfied  that  he  had  not 
his  vote  in  choosing  military  officers,  and  that  such  he  would  not 
follow  as  he  did  not  choose.  He  is  sorry  he  hath  given  such  just 
offence,  and  hopes  he  shall  take  warning,  and  walk  to  better  satis- 
faction hereafter."  "Robert  Basset  said,  concerning  that  letter 
he  received  without  a  nanvs  subscribed,  he  did  not  do  as  he  ought 
in  so  weighty  a  business,  not  considering  of  it,  nor  seeing  that  in 
it  which  he  since  sees;  but  something  being  in  it  which  suited  his 
present  affection  against  the  Dutch,  and  his  corrupt  opinion  con- 
cerning the  votes,  whereby  his  eyes  were  then  blinded,  he  is 
heartily  sorry  for  it,  and  if  God  had  not  stopped  him,  for  aught  he 
knows,  it  might  have  wrought  great  disturbance ;  and  for  his  dis- 
turbing the  peace  of  the  colony,  and  opposing  the  ways  of  govern- 
ment, he  sees  his  evil  in  it  in  some  measure,  and  hopes  he  shall 
see  it  more,  for  he  is  convinced  that  the  way  of  government  here 
settled  is  according  to  God,  which  he  hath  not  honored  as  he 
ought,  and  had  he  honored  God;  he  would  have  helped  him  to 
honor  the  government,  which  he  did  not,  and  is  heartily  sorr}-  for 
it.  Concerning  the  uncomfortable  words  in  the  town  meetings  at 
Stamford  which  have  tended  much  to  disturb  the  peace  of  that 
place,  and  much  grieve  the  hearts  of  God's  people,  which  doth 
now  cause  sorrow  of  heart  in  him,  he  hopes,  that,  as  he  hath  been 
an  instrument  of  dishonor  to  God  in  that  place,  so  he  desires  to 
be  an  instrument  of  his  honor  there.  Concerning  the  letter  which 
he  carried  from  Stamford,  wherein  he  was  employed  by  the  town, 
at  that  time  he  apprehended  it  for  the  peace  of  the  place,  but  he 
now  sees  that  he  did  not  then  see  the  bottom  of  it,  for  it  did  tend 
to  dishonor  the  government  here,  and  prefer  another  government 
before  it :  these  and  other  his  miscarriages  he  said  he  was  sorry 
for,  and  desires  the  Court  to  be  merciful  to  him,  hoping  he  shall 
be  watchful  hereafter ;  and  added  that  he  looks  upon  this  as  an 
aggravation  of  his  sin,  that  all  this  was  against  his  oath  of  fidelity, 
and  from  the  great  pride  of  his  spirit." 


408  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Mr.  Youngs  soon  recovered  the  confidence  of  the 
magistrates  and  other  loyal  people.  The  next  year 
after  his  submission  he  appeared  in  company  with 
Capt.  Tappan  of  Southampton  before  the  commission- 
ers, in  behalf  of  the  English  on  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island,  and  their  Indian  allies  in  the  neighborhood, 
petitioning  for  aid  against  Ninigret's  hostile  invasions. 
At  the  suggestion  of  these  gentlemen,  seconded  by 
letters  from  some  of  the  chief  men  of  that  neighbor- 
hood, the  commissioners  ordered  "  a  vessel  sufficiently 
manned  and  armed,  as  the  case  may  require,  to  attend 
Ninigret*s  motions  and,  as  much  as  may  be,  hinder  his 
intrusions  upon  the  Island."  Of  this  vessel  Youngs 
was  appointed  commander,  with  instructions  to  "  take 
in  from  Saybrook  or  New  London,  six,  ten,  or  twelve 
men,  well  armed  and  fitted  for  the  service,  as  any  of 
the  magistrates  of  Connecticut  shall  direct ;  with  which 
force  you  shall  improve  your  best  endeavors  to  disturb 
his  passage  to,  and  prevent  his  landing  upon,  Long 
Island,  by  taking,  sinking,  and  destroying  so  many 
of  his  canoes  employed  in  that  service  as  shall  come 
within  your  power."  In  later  years  Youngs  became 
a  freeman,  and  appears  on  the  records  as  Capt.  John 
Youngs.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  he  was  evfer 
in  his  true  inwardness  reconciled  to  the  fundamental 
law  of  New  Haven  ;  for,  after  the  arrival  of  the  Con- 
necticut charter,  he  took  the  earliest  opportunity  of 
transferring  to  Connecticut  the  allegiance  of  himself 
and  of  Southold.  After  the  absorption  of  New  Haven 
into  Connecticut,  he  "became  the  most  prominent 
man  of  the  town  "  of  Southold,  and  was  honored  with 
important  trusts  under  the  colonial  government. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT,    409 

The  vexed  question  of  war  with  the  Dutch  brought 
to  open  expression  a  dissatisfaction  in  the  New  Haven 
colony,  which,  though  latent  at  other  times,  was  real 
and  wide-spread.  Those  who  were  not  voters  felt  that 
suffrage  was  too  much  restricted  by  the  fundamental 
law.  The  dissatisfaction  was  deepest  in  regard  to  the 
choice  of  military  officers.  It  often  happened  that 
there  was  in  the  train-band  a  man  plainly  more  fit  to 
be  its  commander  than  any  of  those  who  were  church- 
members.  But  however  great  a  man's  military  genius 
might  be,  he  could  neither  be  an  officer,  nor  have  any 
voice  in  determining  who  should  .give  the  word  of 
command,  unless  he  was  a  member  of  some  approved 
church.  This  was  the  grievance  of  John  Youngs,  in 
whose  plantation  there  seems  to  have  been  a  remarka- 
ble scarcity  of  military  capacity  among  the  church- 
members.  The  records  disclose,  however,  similar  cases 
of  dissatisfaction  in  other  plantations.  In  1655  the 
General  Court  so  far  yielded  to  the  influence  of  public 
opinion  as  to  record :  — 

'*  It  is  agreed,  that  if  in  any  plantation  in  this  jurisdiction  there 
be  none  among  the  freemen  fit  for  a  chief  military  officer,  it  shall 
be  in  the  power  of  the  General  Court  to  choose  some  other  man,  as 
they  shall  judge  fit,  in  whom  they  may  confide." 

One  instance  of  manifested  dissatisfaction  should  be 
specially  mentioned  in  order  to  exhibit  also  the  protest 
of  the  General  Court  against  it.  In  166 1,  at  the  first 
court  held  under  the  administration  of  Gov.  Leete, 
John  Benham  acknowledged  that  he  had  circulated  an 
offensive  writing,  and  desired  forgiveness. 


410  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

"The  Court  was  willing  to  accept  his  acknowledgment,  pro- 
vided that  they  heard  not  further  against  him.  Upon  this  the 
Court  saw  cause  to  declare  as  followeth ;  viz.,  That  whereas  we 
have  been  occasioned  (upon  some  reports  of  grievance  from  sun- 
dry non-freemen,  that  just  privileges  and  liberties  are  denied  them, 
which  they  apprehend  are  allowed  them  by  our  first  fundamental 
law)  to  take  the  matter  into  consideration,  and  upon  a  serious 
review  of  things  of  this  nature,  and  of  our  law,  we  do  see  cause  to 
declare  unto  all  godly  and  peaceable  inhabitants  of  this  colony 
that  we  are  grieved  to  hear  of  some  uncomfortable  manner  of 
acting  by  such  unsatisfied  persons  in  a  seeming  factious,  if  not 
seditious  manner,  which  we  wish  all  (who  would  not  be  looked 
upon  as  disturbers  of  our  peace  and  troublers  of  our  Israel)  to  be 
warned  from  after  appearings  in  such  wise ;  and  we  hope  they 
shall  have  no  cause  to  complain  of  any  injury  by  our  withholding 
of  just  rights,  privileges,  or  liberties,  from  any  to  whom  they 
belong,  so  as  to  hurt  the  promotion  of  our  chief  ends  and  inter- 
ests, professed  and  pretended  by  all  at  our  coming,  combining,  and 
settling  in  New  ERgland,  as  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation  and 
othenvise  may  be  made  to  appear,  which  must  engage  us  to  seek, 
secure,  and  advance  the  same  by  law,  and  from  which  we  cannot 
be  persuaded  to  divert,  so  as  to  commit  our  more  weighty  civil  or 
military  trusts  into  the  hands  of  either  a  crafty  Ahithophel  or  a 
bloody  Joab  (as  some  abusive  meddlers  do  seem  to  hint  unto  us,  in 
a  paper  we  met  withal),  though  such  should  seem  to  be  better 
accomplished  with  either  natural  or  acquired  abilities  above  those 
that  are  as  well  lawful  as  intitled  freemen ;  whose  earnest  desire  is 
that  all  planters  would  make  it  their  serious  endeavor  to  come  in 
by  the  door  to  enjoy  all  privileges  and  bear  all  burdens  equal  with 
themselves,  according  to  our  foundation  settlements  and  univer- 
sally professed  ends,  and  that  there  may  be  no  disorderly  or 
uncomely  attempts  to  climb  up  another  way,  or  to  discourage  the 
hearts  or  weaken  the  hands  of  such  as  yet  bear  the  burden  of  the 
day  in  public  trusts,  which  will  be  afflicting  and  hurtful  to  the  ends 
aforesaid." 

Although  this  last  manifestation  of  discontent  oc- 
curred twelve  months  later  than  the  end  of  the  period 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL  GOVERNMENT.    4II 

to  be  covered  by  this  chapter,  it  seems  appropriate  to 
connect  it  with  earlier  manifestations,  so  as  to  complete 
what  should  be  said  of  that  "  unquietness  in  the  minds 
of  sundry  upon  the  account  of  enfranchisement,  and 
sundry  civil  privileges  thence  flowing,  which  they 
thought  too  shortly  tethered  up  in  the  foundation  of 
the  government." 

The  restoration  of  peace  with  the  Dutch  brought 
internal  quiet  to  New  Haven ;  the  discontent  with 
restricted  suffrage  subsiding  into  its  usual  latent  condi- 
tion. The  reconciliation  with  Massachusetts,  begun  in 
the  autumn  of  1654,  after  her  commissioners  in  her  name 
had  retracted  her  offensive  interpretation  of  the  Arti- 
cles, was  completed  in  the  spring  of  1655,  when  Gov. 
Eaton  informed  the  General  Court  of  New  Haven  "  that 
he  hath  received  from  the  General  Court  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts an  order,  whereby  they  confirm  what  their 
commissioners  did  last  year  at  Hartford,  in  recalling 
their  interpretation  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  so 
offensive  to  the  other  colonies,  which  order  is  by  this 
Court  accepted  and  appointed  to  be  entered  next  after 
the  conclusions  of  the  commissioners  at  that  meeting." 

In  1655  Gov.  Eaton  presented  to  the  General  Court 
a  digest  of  the  laws  of  the  colony,  which  he  had  been 
requested  to  prepare.  The  Court  approved  of  what  he 
had  done,  but  desired  him  "  to  send  for  one  of  the  new 
books  of  laws  in  the  Massachusetts  colony,  and  to  view 
over  a  small  book  of  laws  newly  come  from  England, 
which  is  said  to  be  Mr.  Cotton's,  and  to  add  to  what  is 
already  done  as  he  shall  think  fit,  and  then  the  Court 
will  meet  again  to  confirm  them,  but  in  the  mean  time 
(when  they  are  finished)  they  desire  the  elders  of  the 


412  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

jurisdiction  may  have  the  sight  of  them  for  their  appro- 
bation also."  A  few  months  later,  "the  laws  which  at 
the  Court's  desire  have  been  drawn  up  by  the  governor, 
viewed  and  considered  by  the  elders  of  the  jurisdiction, 
were  now  read  and  seriously  weighed  by  this  Court,  and 
by  vote  concluded  and  ordered  to  be  sent  to  England 
to  be  printed,  with  such  oaths,  forms,  and  precedents  as 
the  governor  may  think  meet  to  put  in ;  and  the  gov- 
ernor is  desired  to  write  to  Mr.  Hopkins,  and  Mr.  New- 
man to  his  brother,  to  do  the  best  they  can  to  get  five 
hundred  of  them  printed."  Ten  months  after  this 
order  for  printing  was  made  :  — 

"  The  governor  informed  the  court  that  there  is  sent  over  now 
in  Mr.  Garret's  ship  five  hundred  law-books,  which  Mr.  Hopkins 
hath  gotten  printed,  and  six  paper  books  for  records  for  the  juris- 
diction ;  with  a  seal  for  the  colony,  which  he  desires  them  to  accept 
as  a  token  of  his  love.  The  law-books  cost,  printing  and  paper, 
;{^io.io;  the  six  paper  books  ^2.8.  The  law-books  are  now 
ordered  to  be  divided  as  followeth :  New  Haven,  200 ;  Milford,  80 ; 
Guilford,  60 ;  Stamford,  70,  a  part  of  which  for  Greenwich  ;  South- 
old,  50 ;  Branford,  40.  For  every  of  which  books,  each  plantation 
is  to  pay  t\velve  pence  in  good  country  pay  (wheat  and  pease  were 
propounded)  to  the  governor,  Mr.  Hopkins  having  ordered  him  to 
receive  it  here  upon  his  own  account,  and  therefore  it  must  be 
made  up  in  quantity,  else  he  would  be  a  great  loser  by  it." 

Greenwich,  though  nominally  purchased  and  estab- 
lished as  a  plantation  by  authority  of  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  had  always  been  a  wayward  daughter.  The 
inhabitants  soon  revolted,  and  placed  themselves  under 
the  government  of  the  New  Netherlands ;  but  the 
Dutch,  being  remonstrated  with,  relinquished  their 
claim.     In  1665, — 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT.    413 

"  The  deputies  of  Stamford  propounded  that  they  have  and 
do  still  suffer  great  inconvenience  and  damage  by  Greenwich, 
who  pound  their  cattle  off  the  common,  besides  their  disorderly 
walking  among  themselves,  admitting  of  drunkenness  among  the 
English  and  Indians,  whereby  they  are  apt  to  do  mischief,  both  to 
themselves  and  others;  they  receive  disorderly  children  or  ser- 
vants, who  fly  from  their  parents*  or  masters'  lawful  correction ; 
they  marry  persons  in  a  disorderly  way,  besides  other  miscarriages ; 
and  therefore,  if  the  Court  see  meet,  they  desire  some  course  may 
be  taken  to  reduce  them  to  join  with  Stamford  in  this  jurisdiction, 
and  the  rather  because  they  pretend  to  shelter  themselves  under 
the  commonwealth  of  England,  who,  we  are  confident,  will  not 
approve  of  such  carriages.  The  Court  considered  of  the  several 
particulars,  and  remembered  how  Greenwich  at  first  was  by  Mr. 
Robert  Feak,  the  first  purchaser  of  the  said  lands,  freely  put  under 
this  jurisdiction ;  though  after  Capt.  Patrick  did  injuriously  put 
himself  and  it  under  the  Dutch,  yet  after,  it  was  by  agreement  at 
Hartford  with  the  Dutch  governor,  1650,  to  be  resigned  to  New 
Haven  jurisdiction  again,  and  since  we  hear  that  the  Dutch  do 
exercise  no  authority  over  them  ;  all  which,  being  considered,  the 
Court  did  agree  and  order  that  a  letter  should  be  written  to  them 
from  this  court,  and  sent  by  the  deputies  of  Stamford,  requiring 
them,  according  to  the  justice  of  the  case,  to  submit  themselves 
to  this  jurisdiction,  which,  if  they  refuse,  then  the  Court  must 
consider  of  some  other  way." 

After  more  than  a  year  of  resistance,  the  people  of 
Greenwich  signed  the  following  engagement :  — 

"At  Greenwich,  the  6th  of  October,  1656.  We,  the  inhabitants 
of  Greenwich,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  do  from  this  day 
forward  freely  yield  ourselves,  place,  and  estate,  to  the  government 
of  New  Haven,  subjecting  ourselves  to  the  order  and  dispose  of 
that  general  court,  both  in  respect  of  relation  and  government, 
promising  to  yield  due  subjection  unto  the  lawful  authority  and 
wholesome  laws  of  the  jurisdiction  aforesaid,  to  wit,  of  New 
Haven."  The  Court,  receiving  this  written  engagement,  ordered 
that  "  they  are  to  fall  in  with  Stamford,  and  be  accepted  a  part 


414  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

thereof,  and,  from  the  time  of  their  submission,  they  are  freed 
from  rates  for  one  whole  year." 

The  submission  of  Greenwich,  signed  in  the  next  pre- 
ceding October,  was  presented  to  the  court  May  27, 
1657.  This  was  the  last  general  court  in  which  Eaton 
presided,  and  only  twice  afterward  did  he  hold  a  court  of 
magistrates.  He  died  suddenly  in  the  following  Jan- 
uary. "  Having  worshipped  God  with  his  family  after 
his  usual  manner,  and  upon  some  occasion  with  much 
solemnity  charged  all  the  family  to  carry  it  well  unto 
their  mistress  who  was  now  confined  by  sickness,  he 
supped,  and  then  took  a  turn  or  two  abroad  for  his 
meditations.  After  that,  he  came  in  to  bid  his  wife 
good  night,  before  he  left  her  with  her  watchers ; 
which,  when  he  did,  she  said,  'Methinks  you  look  sad.* 
Whereto  he  replied,  *  The  differences  risen  in  the  church 
of  Hartford  make  me  so.'  She  then  added,  'Let  us 
even  go  back  to  our  native  country  again.*  To  which 
he  answered,  'You  may,  but  I  shall  die  here.*  This 
was  the  last  word  that  ever  she  heard  him  speak  ;  for, 
now  retiring  unto  his  lodging  in  another  chamber,  he 
was  overheard  about  midnight  fetching  a  groan ;  and 
unto  one  sent  in  presently  to  inquire  how  he  did,  he 
answered  the  inquiry  with  only  saying,  'Very  ill,*  and, 
without  saying  any  more,  he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus.** 
"This  man,**  says  Hubbard,  "ha(i  in  him  great  gifts 
and  as  many  excellencies  as  are  usually  found  in  any 
one  man.  He  had  an  excellent  princely  face  and  port, 
commanding  respect  from  all  others ;  he  was  a  good 
scholar,  a  traveller,  a  great  reader,  of  an  exceeding 
steady  and  even  spirit,  not  easily  moved  to  passion,  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT    415 

Standing  unshaken  in  his  principles  when  once  fixed 
upon,  of  a  profound  judgment,  full  of  majesty  and 
authority  in  his  judicatures  so  that  it  was  a  vain  thing 
to  offer  to  brave  him  out." 

As  Eaton  had  been  elected  to  the  chief  magistracy 
annually  from  the  institution  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ment, so  Stephen  Goodyear  had  been  with  equal  regu- 
larity chosen  deputy-governor.  Naturally  he  would 
have  succeeded  to  the  place  vacated  by  the  death .  of 
Eaton ;  but  his  absence  on  a  visit  to  England  obliged 
the  freemen  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  chief  magistrate. 
At  the  court  of  election  in  the  following  May,  Francis 
Newman,  who  had  for  some  years  been  secretary  of 
the  jurisdiction,  was  chosen  governor,  and  William 
Leete,  deputy-governor.  Mr.  Davenport  writes  to  his 
friend  the  younger  Winthrop  :  — 

"  The  last  election  day  was  the  saddest  to  me  that  ever  I  saw 
in  New  Haven,  by  our  want  of  him  whose  presence  was  wont  to 
make  it  a  day  of  no  less  contentment  than  solemnity.  Being  weary 
after  my  sermon,  I  was  absent  from  the  court.  The  first  news 
that  I  heard  from  thence  added  to  my  sorrow,  for  I  heard  that 
Mr.  Goodyear  was  wholly  left  out  in  the  choice  of  magistrates; 
whereas  I  had  been  secure,  thinking  they  purposed  to  choose  him 
governor.  But  the  day  following,  upon  inquiry  into  the  cause  of 
it,  I  received  such  answer  as  cleared  unto  me  that  it  came  to 
pass,  not  by  any  plot  of  men,  but  by  the  overruling  providence  of 
God.  For  the  proxies  generally  voted  for  Mr.  Goodyear  to  be 
governor  and  Mr.  Leete  deputy,  and  none  of  them  gave  their  votes 
for  Mr.  Goodyear  to  be  deputy-governor  if  the  former  failed,  nor 
to  be  magistrate,  but  put  in  blanks  to  both,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  he  would  be  chosen  governor.  But  before  they  proceeded 
to  election,  some  of  the  deputies  of  the  court  propounded  and 
urged  the  necessity  of  great  expediency,  in  respect  of  our  condition 
at  present,  of  having  the  governor  present  among  us.    Hereunto 


4l6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

the  freemen  generally  consented ;  and  hereby  the  election  fell 
upon  Mr.  Newman  to  be  governor,  and  Mr.  Leete  deputy-gov- 
ernor, for  this  year.  To  this  latter  the  proxies  for  the  most  part 
concurred,  and  most  of  the  present  freemen.  The  votes  of  the 
present  freemen  and  some  few  proxies  carried  the  election  for  gov- 
ernor to  Mr.  Newman  by  plurality  of  votes,  which  he  strongly 
refused;  but  importunity  of  many  in  the  court  at  last  overcame 
him  to  accept  it ;  and  some  of  Mr.  Goodyear's  friends  spake  ear- 
nestly, when  these  two  were  chosen,  to  hinder  his  being  chosen  to 
magistracy,  alleging  such  reasons  as  they  had." . 

Mr.  Goodyear  was  so  generally  regarded  as  second 
only  to  Gov.  Eaton  in  all  qualifications  requisite  for  the 
chief  magistracy,  that,  if  he  had  lived  to  return,  he 
would  probably  have  been  called,  as  soon  as  an  election 
occurred,  to  the  high  position  for  which  his  only  dis- 
qualification in  May,  i^fjTwas  absence  from  the  col-  /658 
ony.  His  death  occurred  in  London,  not  long  after- 
ward ;  the  melancholy  tidings  of  it  having  been  received 
before  the  20th  of  October,  at  which  date  proceedings 
were  commenced  for  the  settlement  of  his  estate. 

Mr.  Newman  and  Mr.  Leete  were  re-elected  in  1659 
and  1660.  On  the  17th  of  October  of  the  latter  year 
a  court  of  magistrates  was  held,  at  which  the  following 
record  was  made,  the  governor  being  absent :  — 

"  By  reason  of  the  afflicting  hand  of  God  on  New  Haven  by 
much  sickness,  the  Court  could  not  pitch  upon  a  day  for  public 
thanksgiving  through  the  colony  for  the  mercies  of  the  year  past, 
and  did  therefore  leave  it  to  the  elders  of  the  church  at  New 
Haven,  as  God  may  be  pleased  to  remove  his  hand  from  the  gov- 
ernor and  others,  to  give  notice  to  the  rest  of  the  plantations  what 
day  they  judge  fit  for  that  duty,  that  we  may  give  thanks  and  re- 
joice before  the  Lord  together." 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIAL   GOVERNMENT    417 

Gov.  Newman  died  Nov.  18,  1660.  Mr.  Davenport, 
in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Winthrop,  thus  communicates 
the  particulars  of  his  decease  :  — 

"  We  hoped  he  was  in  a  good  way  of  recovery  from  his  former 
sickness,  and  were  comforted  with  his  presence  in  the  assembly 
two  Lord's  days,  and  at  one  meeting  of  the  church  on  a  week  day, 
without  sensible  inconvenience.  And  on  the  morning  of  the  day 
of  public  thanksgiving,  he  found  himself  encouraged  to  come  to 
the  public  assembly.  But  after  the  morning  sermon  he  told  me 
that  he  found  himself  exceedingly  cold  from  head  to  toe ;  yet 
having  dined,  he  was  refreshed,  and  came  to  the  meeting  again  in 
the  afternoon,  the  day  continuing  very  cold.  That  night  he  was 
very  ill ;  yet  he  did  not  complain  of  any  relapse  into  his  former 
disease,  but  of  inward  cold,  which  he  and  we  hoped  might  be 
removed  by  his  keeping  warm  and  using  other  suitable  means.  I 
believe  he  did  not  think  that  the  time  of  his  departure  was  so 
near,  or  that  he  should  die  of  this  distemper,  though  he  was  always 
prepared  for  his  great  change.  The  last  day  of  the  week  he 
desired  my  son  to  come  to  him  the  next  morning  to  write  a  bill  for 
him  to  be  prayed  for,  according  to  his  direction.  My  son  went  to 
him  after  the  beating  of  the  first  drum ;  but  finding  himself  not  fit 
to  speak  much,  he  prayed  him  to  write  for  him  what  he  thought 
fit.  When  the  second  drum  beat,  I  was  sent  for  to  him.  But 
before  I  came,  though  I  made  haste,  his  precious  immortal  soul 
was  departed  from  its  house  of  clay  unto  the  souls  of  just  men 
made  perfect.  We  were  not  worthy  of  him,  a  true  Nathanael,  an 
Israelite  indeed,  who  served  God  in  Christ  in  sincerity  and  truth. 
He  honored  God  in  his  personal  conversation,  and  in  his  adminis- 
tration of  chief  magistracy  in  this  colony ;  and  God  hath  given 
him  honor  in  the  hearts  of  his  people.*' 

On  the  27th  of  July,  1660,  about  four  months  pre- 
vious to  the  death  of  Gov.  Newman,  the  ship  Prudent 
Mary,  commanded  by  Capt.  Pierce,  a  noted  shipmas- 
ter in  the  trade  between  New  England  and  the  mother 


4l8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

country,  arrived  at  Boston,  bringing  intelligence  that 
the  Stuarts  had  been  restored  to  the  throne  in  the 
person  of  Charles  II.  In  the  vessel  which  brought 
these  tidings  came  Edward  Whalley  and  William  Gofife, 
both  members  of  the  High  Court  which  had  con- 
demned to  death  the  father  of  the  reigning  monarch. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE   STUARTS   AND   THE   REGICIDES. 

THE  tidings  which  came  to  Boston  on  the  27th 
of  July,  1660,  were  not  entirely  unexpected.  A 
new  parliament  had  been  summoned  to  meet  in  April ; 
and  the  result  of  the  elections  had  shown  that  it  was 
to  consist  chiefly  of  persons  friendly  to  a  government 
by  king,  lords,  and  commons.  So  much  as  this  must 
have  been  already  known  in  New  England  by  earlier 
ships  than  that  of  Mr.  Pierce.  His  arrival  was  anx- 
iously expected.  Mr.  Davenport  writes  to  Winthrop 
just  one  week  before  Pierce  cast  anchor  at  Boston, 
"  Sir,  I  humbly  thank  you  for  the  intelligences  I  received 
in  your  letters,  and  for  the  two  weekly  intelligences 
which  Brother  Miles  brought  me,  I  think  from  your- 
self, and  which  I  return  enclosed,  by  this  bearer,  with 
many  thanks.  I  did  hope  that  we  might  have  received 
our  letters  by  Capt.  Pierce  before  this  time.  But  we 
have  no  news  lately  from  the  Bay.  Brother  Rutherford 
and  Brother  Alsop  are  both  there,  so  also  is  our  teacher 
Mr.  Street.  The  two  former,  I  hope,  will  return  next 
week.  Then,  probably,  we  shall  have  some  further 
news.  The  Lord  fit  us  to  receive  it  as  we  ought,  what- 
ever it  may  be.** 
The  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  not  received  in 

4«9 


420  HISTORY  OF  XEW  HA  VEX  COLOXV, 

New  England  jo)'fully.  The  change  from  a  kingdom 
to  a  commonwealth  twenty  years  before  had  injured 
New  England  in  its  material  interests  by  checking  the 
emigration  which  was  pouring  into  it  population  and 
wealth.  But  this  disadvantage  had  been  outweighed, 
in  the  judgment  of  the  Puritan  colonists,  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  men  in  sympathy  with  themselves  to  supreme 
power  and  authority  in  what  they  called  the  State 
of  England.  They  were  more  earnest  to  secure  "  the 
ends  for  which  they  had  come  hither  "  than  to  obtain 
a  larger  price  for  their  corn  and  cattle,  and  they  were 
confident  that  these  ends  would  not  be  frustrated  by 
any  action  of  the  home  government  so  long  as  Puritans 
were  in  power  in  England.  But  what  effect  upon  the 
colonies  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  might  produce, 
it  was  impossible  to  foresee. 

When  the  time  arrived  for  the  ne.xt  election  in  New 
Haven  jurisdiction,  it  was  difficult  to  find  suitable  per- 
sons willing  to  accept  office.  John  Wakeman  and 
William  Gibbard  were  nominated  for  the  magistracy  in 
the  plantation  court  of  New  Haven,  notwithstanding 
their  protest ;  Mr.  Wakeman,  who  had  had  some 
thought  of  removing  to  Hartford,  saying,  when  ques- 
tioned if  he  intended  to  stay  at  New  Haven,  that  "  he 
was  not  resolved  whether  to  go  or  stay,  but  rather  than 
he  would  accept  of  the  place,  he  would  remove.**  In 
the  court  of  elections  for  the  jurisdiction  they  were 
both  elected  magistrates,  "but  neither  of  them  took 
the  oath."  Mr.  Benjamin  Fenn  of  Milford  being  elected 
magistrate,  took  the  oath  **  with  this  explanation  before 
the  oath  was  administered,  that  he  would  take  the  oath 
to  act  in  his  place,  according  to  the  laws  of  this  juris- 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  42 1 

diction ;  but  in  case  any  business  from  without  should 
present,  he  conceived  he  should  give  no  ofifence  if  he 
did  not  attend  to  it,  who  desired  that  it  might  be  so 
understood."  Mr.  William  Leete  was  chosen  governor, 
Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert  deputy-governor,  and  Mr.  Robert 
Treat  and  Mr.  Jasper  Crane,  magistrates.  It  does  not 
appear  that  any  of  these  four  hesitated  to  take  the  oath 
proper  to  their  place. 

By  the  terms  of  his  restoration,  Charles  II.  had  left 
to  Parliament  to  determine  who  should  be  excepted 
from  an  act  of  general  amnesty.  The  act,  when  passed, 
excepted  all  who  had  been  directly  concerned  in  the 
death  of  the  former  king.  But  because  Whallcy  and 
Goffe  had  left  England  before  they  had  been  marked 
for  punishment,  the  people  of  Massachusetts  felt  no 
embarrassment  in  receiving  and  entertaining  them. 
Major  Daniel  Gookin,  one  of  their  fellow-passengers 
in  the  Prudent  Mary,  offered  them  the  hospitality  of 
his  house  in  Cambridge;  and  in  Cambridge  they  re- 
mained till  the  following  February,  often  visiting  Bos- 
ton and  other  towns  in  the  neighborhood.  They  came, 
it  is  said,  under  the  assumed  names  of  Edward  Rich- 
ardson and  William  Stephenson  ;  but  their  secret,  not- 
withstanding this  disguise,  was  known  to  many ;  so 
that  when  intelligence  came  that  they  had  been  ex- 
cepted in  the  act  of  amnesty,  some  of  the  magistrates 
were  alarmed,  and  the  more  because  it  was  known  that 
they  had  been  seen  and  recognized  by  Capt.  Thomas 
Breedon,  a  royalist  who  had  since  sailed  for  England. 
The  governor  therefore  convened  his  council  to  consider 
and  determine  whether  the  proscribed  regicides  should 
be  apprehended.     The  council  considered,  but  came  to 


422  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HA  VEX  COLOXY, 

no  determination.  Four  days  afterward  Whalley  and 
Goffe  relieved  their  friends  in  Massachusetts  by  depart- 
ing for  New  Haven. 

Only  a  fortnight  after  their  arrival  at  Boston,  Mr. 
Davenport  had  mentioned  them  in  a  letter  to  the 
younger  Winthrop,  and  declared  his  purpose  of  inviting 
them  to  his  house  after  the  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners in  September,  alleging,  as  a  reason  for  delay,  his 
desire  to  keep  the  guest-chamber  ready  for  an  expected 
visit  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Winthrop  during  the  meeting 
of  the  commissioners.  His  interest  in  them  at  that 
time  seems  to  have  been  that  of  a  person  in  sympathy 
with  them  in  politics  and  religion,  who  had  heard  a 
good  report  of  their  quality  and  godliness,  but  was 
unacquainted  with  their  personal  history  and  connec- 
tions. On  a  little  piece  of  paper  wafered  to  the  side 
of  the  letter,  he  adds  this  postscript :  "  Sir,  I  mistook, 
in  my  letter,  when  I  said  Col.  Whalley  was  one  of  the 
gentlemen,  &c.  It  is  Commissar}'-Gen.  Whalley,  sis- 
ter Hooke's  brother,  and  his  son-in-law  who  is  with 
him  is  Col.  Goffe ;  both  godly  men,  and  escaped  pur- 
suit in  England  narrowly."  He  had  doubtless  received 
this  information  from  Mr.  William  Jones  and  his  wife,* 

*  William  Jones,  having  married  as  his  second  wife  Hannah,  youngest 
daughter  of  Theophilus  Eaton,  July  4,  1659,  came  in  the  following  year 
from  London  to  New  Haven,  where,  on  the  23d  of  May,  1662,  he  took 
the  oath  of  fidelity  with  the  following  qualification:  ** That  whereas  the 
king  hath  been  proclaimed  in  this  colony  to  be  our  sovereign,  and  we  his 
loyal  subjects,  I  do  take  the  said  oath  with  subordination  to  his  majesty, 
hoping  his  majesty  will  confirm  the  said  government  for  the  advancement 
of  Christ's  gospel,  kingdom,  and  ends,  in  this  colony,  upon  the  founda- 
tions already  laid ;  but  in  case  of  the  alteration  of  the  government  in  the 
fundamentals  thereof,  then  to  be  free  from  the  said  oath."  The  same  day 
he  was  admitted  a  freeman ;  and  five  days  afterward,  at  a  court  of  election 
for  the  jurisdiction,  he  was  chosen  a  magistrate. 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  423 

who,  having  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  ship  with 
these  distinguished  strangers,  had  come  to  New  Haven 
to  occupy  the  mansion  which  Mrs.  Jones,  the  daughter 
of  Gov.  Eaton,  had  inherited  from  her  father.  The 
identification  of  Whalley  as  Mrs.  Hooke's  brother  must 
in  time  have  recalled  to  memory  many  things  he  had 
learned  from  his  colleague  in  reference  to  Goffe,  who 
was  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Hooke's  niece.  If  he  had 
not  already  heard  that  the  latter,  when  a  major-general 
in  the  army,  with  his  headquarters  at 'Winchester,  had 
resided  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Whitfield,  formerly  pastor 
of  the  church  in  Guilford,  he  may  have  learned  it  from 
the  same  persons  who  had  assisted  him  to  identify  the 
brother-in-law  of  his  former  colleague. 

The  greater  ease  of  escaping  from  New  Haven  into 
New  Netherlands,  may  have  influenced  Whalley  and 
Goffe  to  go  thither  rather  than  remain  in  Hartford, 
where  they  tarried  awhile,  and  were  hospitably  enter- 
tained by  Gov.  Winthrop.  But  the  presence  at  New 
Haven  of  persons  intimately  acquainted  with  the  friends 
in  England  on  whom  they  were  dependent  for  remit- 
tances of  money,  may  also  have  had  some  weight  in 
their  minds  in  determining  where  to  hide  themselves. 

A  journey  of  nine  days  from  Cambridge  brought 
them  by  way  of  Hartford  and  Guilford  to  New  Haven, 
March  7,  1661,  where  they  appeared  openly  as  Mr. 
Davenport/s  guests.  But  intelligence  having  reached 
Boston,  while  they  were  on  their  journey,  that  a  royal 
proclamation  for  their  arrest  had  been  issued  in  Janu- 
ary, on  information  supplied  by  Capt.  Breedon,  it  soon 
followed  them  to  New  Haven,  and  rendered  it  unsafe 
for  them  to  be  seen  in  public.     Accordingly,  on  the 


424  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

27th  of  March,  they  went  to  Milford,  as  if  on  a  journey 
to  New  Netherlands ;  but  in  the  night  they  returned 
to  Mr.  Davenport's,  where  they  remained  in  conceal- 
ment till  the  30th  of  April. 

Further  reports  of  their  residence  at  Cambridge  hav- 
ing reached  England,  another  royal  order  for  their 
arrest  was  issued  in  March,  and  reached  Boston  on  the 
28th  of  April.  It  was  blunderingly  addressed,  **  To  our 
tfiisty  and  well-beloved,  the  present  Governor  or  other 
magistrate  or  magistrates  of  our  plantation  of  New 
England.''  The  governor  of  Massachusetts,  having 
delayed  till  sufficient  time  had  elapsed  for  the  news  to 
be  forwarded  to  New  Haven,  gave  two  young  men, 
recently  come  from  England,  Thomas  Kcllond,  mer- 
chant, and  Thomas  Kirk,  shipmaster,  a  commission  to 
prosecute  the  search  in  Massachusetts,  with  letters  of 
commendation  from  himself  to  the  governors  of  Plym- 
outh, Connecticut,  New  Haven,  and  •New  Nether- 
lands. On  Tuesday,  May  7,  about  six  p.m.,  Kcllond 
and  Kirk,  with  John  Chapin  as  guide,  left  Boston.  On 
Friday  they  had  an  interview  with  Gov.  Winthrop  at 
Hartford.  They  ^ay  in  their  report,  "The  honorable 
governor  carried  himself  very  nobly  to  us,  and  was 
VQvy  diligent  to  supply  us  with  all  manner  of  conven- 
iences for  the  prosecution  of  them,  and  promised  all 
diligent  search  should  be  made  after  them  in  that 
jurisdiction,  which  was  afterward  performed."  Learn- 
ing from  Winthrop  that  the  "colonels,"  as  Whalley 
and  Goffe  were  called,  had  gone  from  Hartford  toward 
New  Haven,  the  pursuivants  rode  on  Saturday  to  Guil- 
ford, where  resided  Deputy-Gov.  Leete,  chief  magis- 
trate of  New  Haven  colony  since  the  death  of  Gov. 
Newman. 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES.  425 

Leete  received  them  in  the  presence  of  several  other 
persons.  Looking  over  their  papers,  "he  began  to 
read  them  audibly ;  whereupon  we  told  him  (says  their 
report)  it  was  convenient  to  be  more  private  in  such 
concernments  as  that  was.'*  Retiring  with  them  to 
another  room,  and  thus  giving  opportunity  for  the  rest 
of  the  company  to  disperse,  Leete  assured  them  that 
he  had  not  seen  the  colonels  for  nine  weeks ;  that  is, 
since  the  time  when  they  passed  through  Guilford  on 
the  way  from  Hartford  to  New  Haven.  The  pursui- 
vants replied  that  they  had  information  that  the  per- 
sons they  were  in  pursuit  of  had  been  in  New  Haven 
since  then,  and  desired  him  to  furnish  them  with  horses 
for  their  further  journey.  The  horses  were  "prepared 
with  some  delays."  Coming  out  from  the  governor's 
house,  they  were  told  on  their  way  to  the  inn  by  one 
Dennis  Scranton  (Crampton  X)  that  the  colonels  were 
secreted  at  Mr.  Davenport's,  "and  that,  without  all 
question.  Deputy  Leete  knew  as  much."  Other  per- 
sons reported  that  they  had  very  lately  been  seen 
between  the  houses  of  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Jones. 

Confirmed  by  these  tidings  in  the  belief  that  they 
were  upon  the  track  of  the  fugitives,  the  pursui^nts 
returned  to  Leete,  and  demanded  military  aid  and  "a 
power  to  search  and  apprehend."  But  he  "said  he 
could  do  nothing  until  he  had  spoken  with  one  Mr. 
Gilbert  and  the  rest  of  his  magistrates."  He  offered, 
however,  to  give  them  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gilbert.  By  the 
time  the  governor  had  made  ready  his  letter,  the  sun 
was  too  far  on  its  way  toward  the  western  horizon  to 
justify  any  expectation  that  they  could  conclude  a 
conference  with   magistrate  Gilbert  before  the  going 


426  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

down  of  the  sun  should  put  an  end  to  all  secular  trans- 
actions. They  seem  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion, 
that,  in  the  circumstances,  it  was  better  to  stay  in 
Guilford  than  to  go  on  to  New  Haven,  and,  by  their 
presence  there  on  the  sabbath,  notify  the  friends  of 
the  regicides  that  search  would  be  made  for  them  on 
the  morrow.  But  their  presence  in  Guilford  was  already 
known  in  New  Haven,  for  some  one  who  heard  the 
governor  read  their  commission  had  occasion  soon  after 
to  send  an  Indian  runner  on  an  errand  to  New  Haven. 

At  daybreak  on  Monday  they  left  Guilford  for  New 
Haven,  bearing  the  letter  of  Gov.  Leete,  advising  Mr. 
Gilbert  to  call  the  town  court  together,  and,  by  their 
advice  and  concurrence,  to  cause  a  search  to  be  made. 
But,  early  as  they  started,  a  messenger  had  been  sent 
before  them  to  warn  Gilbert  that  they  were  coming. 
"  To  our  certain  knowledge  (they  say)  one  John  Meigs 
was  sent  a  horseback  before  us,  and  by  his  speedy  and 
unexpected  going  so  early  before  day,  was  to  give  them 
an  information ;  and  the  rather  because  by  the  delays 
which  were  used  it  was  break  of  day  before  we  got  to 
horse  ;  so  he  got  there  before  us."  Leete  arrived,  the 
pursuivants  say  in  their  report,  "  within  two  hours  or 
thereabouts  after  us,  and  came  to  us  to  the  court- 
chamber,  where  we  again  acquainted  him  with  the 
information  we  had  received,  and  that  we  had  cause  to 
believe  they  were  concealed  in  New  Haven,  and  there- 
upon we  required  his  assistance  and  aid  for  their  appre- 
hension ;  to  which  he  answered,  that  he  did  not  believe 
they  were.  Whereupon  we  desired  him  to  empower  us, 
or  order  others  for  it ;  to  which  he  gave  us  this  an- 
swer, that  he  could  not,  nor  would  not,  make  us  magis- 
trates." 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  427 

Magistrate  Crane,  of  Branford,  had  arrived  in  com- 
pany  with  Leete.  Gilbert,  who  was  not  at  home  when 
the  pursuivants  inquired  for  him,  having  at  last  made 
his  appearance,  and  Mr.  Fenn  having  been  summoned 
from  Milford,  —  perhaps  by  Mr.  Gilbert  in  person, -r- 
the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  for  New  Haven  held 
a  consultation  which  lasted  five  or  six  hours.  The 
issue  of  it,  as  communicated  to  Kellond  and  Kirk,  was 
that  "  they  would  not  nor  could  not  do  any  thing  until 
they  had  called  a  general  court  of  the  freemen."  The 
pursuivants  protested  against  the  delay,  and  threatened 
the  magistrates  and  the  colony  with  the  resentment  of 
his  Majesty.  The  reply  was  "we  honor  his  Majesty, 
but  we  have  tender  consciences."  The  magistrates 
then  held  a  second  consultation  of  two  or  three  hours ; 
after  which,  being  further  pressed  "  to  their  duty  and 
loyalty  to  his  Majesty,  and  whether  they  would  own 
his  Majesty  or  no,  it  was  answered,  they  would  first 
know  whether  his  Majesty  would  own  them." 

New  Haven  was  a  government  formed  by  the  people 
without  any  charter  or  commission  of  any  kind  from 
England ;  and  its  magistrates  feared  that  by  acting 
under  a  mandate  directed  to  the  Governor  of  New 
England  they  might  be  acknowledging  a  governor- 
general,  and  thus  betray  the  trust  committed  to  them 
under  oath  by  the  freemen  of  the  colony.  They  would 
do  nothing,  therefore,  without  a  general  court. 

Evening  coming  on  before  the  magistrates  made 
their  last  reply  to  the  pursuivants,  it  was  too  late  to 
send  forth  on  that  day  a  warrant  for  convening  the 
court.  On  Tuesday  it  was  sent  to  the  several  planta- 
tions, and  the  court  was  held  on  Friday.     The  pursui- 


428  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

vants,  however,  could  not  wait  so  long  for  a  meeting 
which  promised  so  little.  Offering  "  great  rewards  to 
English  and  Indians  who  should  give  information  that 
they  might  be  taken,"  they  departed  on  Tuesday  for  New 
Amsterdam,  not  without  hope  of  finding,  and,  with  the 
help  of  the  Dutch  governor,  apprehending  the  fugitives. 
From  New  Amsterdam  they  returned  by  sea  to  Boston, 
where,  on  the  30th  of  May,  they  made  oath  to  the 
truth  of  the  written  report  which  they  delivered  to 
Gov.  Endicott. 

On  the  Saturday  when  Kellond  and  Kirk  were  in 
Guilford,  Whalley  and  Goffe,  leaving  the  house  of  Mr. 
Jones,  in  which  they  had  been*  secreted  since  the  30th 
of  April,  went  to  the  mill '  two  miles  north  of  the  town, 
where  they  remained  till  Monday.  We  can  easily  con- 
jecture that  they  did  not  make  themselves  visible  at 
the  mill  till  the  last  customer  had  departed,  and  that 
they  went  away  on  Monday  morning  before  the  earli- 
est grist  was  brought.     Beyond  the  mill  all  was  an  un- 

'  Dr.  Bacon  places  the  mill  to  which  the  regicides  went  for  conceal- 
ment till  the  sabbath  was  past,  at  Westville;  but  I  do  not  find  on  the 
records  evidence  that  there  was  at  that  time  any  other  mill  than  that  on 
Mill  River.  This  mill  having  become  rotten,  and  new  mill-stones  being 
required  for  it,  an  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  not  long  before 
to  bring  the  water  from  the  Beaver  Pond  in  a  trench,  so  that  an  overshot 
mill  might  be  set  up  in  the  town.  On  the  first  day  of  December,  1662, 
there  was  a  general  court,  at  which  nothing  was  said  about  the  mill,  and 
on  the  third  day  of  the  same  month  a  special  meeting  was  held  and  "  the 
occasion  of  coming  together  "  was  "  the  sad  providence  of  God  that  was 
fallen  out  in  the  burning  of  the  mill."  Doubtless  it  was  burned  after  the 
meeting,  two  days  before.  It  was  regarded  as  a  calamity,  not  only  Ijecausc 
of  the  loss  of  property,  but  because  of  the  inconvenience  of  going  to 
Milford  for  meal.  The  mill  was  soon  after  rebuilt  in  the  same  place. 
The  mill-house,  which  was  consumed  by  fire  in  1662,  was  doubtless  the 
same  which  in  1661  sheltered  the  regicides. 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES.  429 

broken  wilderness  ;  so  that  if  the  pursuivants  had  come 
to  New  Haven  on  Saturday,  furnished  with  a  search- 
warrant,  the  fugitives  might,  at  any  moment,  by  retir- 
ing a  few  miles  into  the  forest,  have  become  secure. 
Probably  this  was  their  design  after  Mr.  Jones  had 
learned  from  the  Indian  runner  what  was  going  on  in 
Guilford ;  but  as  their  enemies  did  not  leave  Guilford 
till  Monday,  they  deemed  it  safe  to  sleep  under  a  roof. 

No  more  appropriate  time  could  be  suggested  for 
the  allusion  which  Mr.  Davenport  is  believed  to  have 
made  to  the  regicides  in  the  pulpit,  than  the  sabbath 
intervening  between  the  two  nights  they  spent  at  the 
mill.  In  a  series  of  sermons  substantially  reproduced 
afterward  in  a  book  entitled  "The  Saint's  Anchor- 
Hold,"  he  inculcated  among  other  duties  that  of  sym- 
pathizing with  and  helping  those  who,  for  Christ's  sake, 
are  in  trouble. 

"Brethren,  it  is  a  weighty  matter  to  read  letters  and  receive 
intelligence  in  them  concerning  the  state  of  the  churches.  You 
need  to  lift  up  your  hearts  to  God,  when  you  are'  about  to  read 
your  letters  from  our  native  country,  to  give  you  wisdom  and 
hearts  duly  affected,  that  you  may  receive  such  intelligences  as 
you  ought ;  for  God  looks  upon  every  man,  in  such  cases,  with  a 
jealous  eye,  observing  with  what  workings  of  bowels  they  read  or 
speak  of  the  concernments  of  his  church."  .  .  .  .  "  The  Christian 
Hebrews  are  exhorted  to  call  to  remembrance  the  former  days  in 
which,  after  they  were  illuminated,  they  endured  a  great  fight  of 
afflictions  partly  whilst  they  were  made  a  gazing  stock  both  by 
reproaches  and  afflictions,  and  partly  whilst  they  became  com- 
panions of  them  that  were  so  used.  Let  us  do  likewise,  and  own 
the  reproached  and  persecuted  people  and  cause  of  Christ  in 
suffering  times. 

"Withhold  not  countenance,  entertainment,  and  protection, 
from  such,  if  they  come  to  us  from  other  countries,  as  from  France, 


430  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

or  England,  or  any  other  place.  Be  not  forgetful  to  entertain 
strangers,  for  thereby  some  have  entertained  angels  unawares. 
Remember  them  that  are  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them,  and  them 
who  suffer  adversity,  as  being  yourselves  also  in  the  body.  The 
Lord  required  this  of  Moab,  sa>nng,  'Make  thy  shadow  as  the 
night  in  the  midst  of  the  noonday;'  —  that  is,  provide  safe  and 
comfortable  shelter  and  refreshment  for  my  people  in  the  heat  of 
persecution  and  opposition  raised  against  them:  —  'hide  the  out- 
casts, bewray  not  him  that  wandereth :  let  mine  outcasts  dwell 
with  thee,  Moab ;  be  thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of  the 
spoiler.'  Is  it  objected.  But  so  I  may  expose  myself  to  be  spoiled 
or  troubled  ?  He  therefore,  to  remove  this  objection,  addeth,  *  For 
the  danger  is  at  an  end,  the  spoiler  ceaseth;  the  trcaders  down 
are  consumed  out  of  the  land.'  While  we  are  attending  to  our 
duty  in  owning  and  harboring  Christ's  witnesses,  God  will  be  pro- 
viding for  their  and  our  safety,  by  destroying  those  that  would 
destroy  his  people." ' 

On  Monday,  May  13,  Whalley  and  Goffe  were  con- 
ducted by  Mr.  Jones  and  two  other  friends  some  three 
miles  into  the  wilderness  beyond  the  mill,  where,  a 
booth  having  been  constructed,  the  colonels  spent  two 
nights.  Having  found  a  hatchet  at  the  moment  when 
one  was  needed  for  constructing  the  booth,  they  called 
the  place  Hatchet  Harbor.  On  Wednesday,  Kellond  and 
Kirk  being  now  far  on  their  way  to  New  Amsterdam,  it 
was  safe  for  Whalley  and  Goffe  to  come  nearer  to  the 
habitations  of  men,  and  they  were  on  that  day  con- 
ducted to  West  Rock,  or  Providence  Hill,  as  they 
named  it,  by  Richard  Sperry,  one  of  the  three  friends 

'  But  as  a  copy  of  the  book  was  presented  by  Davenport  to  Sir 
Thomas  Temple  in  August,  1661,  it  would  seem  that  the  discourse  from 
which  the  above  is  extracted  must  have  been  preached  at  an  earlier  date. 
The  time  intervening  between  May  and  August  would  hardly  suffice  for 
sending  the  manuscript  to  England,  and  receiving  in  return  the  printed 
copies. 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  43 1 

who  had  guided  them  to  Hatchet  Harbor.  Here  were 
several  huge  fragments  of  trap  rock,  placed  so  as,  with 
the  aid  of  hemlock  boughs,  to  shield  the  space  amidst 
them  from  the  wind,  and  some  of  them  projecting 
overhead  so  as  to  afford  shelter  from  rain.  This  clus- 
ter of  rocks,  which  has  ever  since  been  called  the 
Judges'  Cave,  was  the  refuge  of  these  hunted  regicides 
from  May  15  to  June  11.  They  were  supplied  with 
food  from  day  to  day  by  the  faithful  Sperry,  whose 
house  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  though  much  nearer  than 
any  other,  was  nearly  a  mile  distant.  It  is  not  unrea- 
sonable to  conjecture  that  they  went  down  in  the  even- 
ing to  Sperry's  house  to  sleep,  and  returned  early  in 
the  morning  to  the  cave,  though  tradition  allows  only 
that  they  sometimes  came  to  the  house  in  stormy 
weather.  Probably  not  more  than  three  or  four  per- 
sons knew  that  they  were  in  Sperry's  neighborhood ; 
perhaps  of  the  few  who  knew  that  he  supplied  their 
wants  and  guarded  the  approach  to  their  privacy,  none 
but  himself  had  ever  seen  the  Judges'  Cave. 

On  Friday,  two  days  after  Whalley  and  Goffe  had 
removed  from  Hatchet  Harbor  to  West  Rock,  — 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Court  for  the  jurisdiction,  May 
17,  1661,  the  deputy-governor  declared  to  the  Court  the  cause  of 
the  meeting ;  viz.,  that  he  had  received  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  his 
Majesty,  with  another  letter  from  the  governor  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, for  the  apprehending  of  Col.  Whalley  and  Col.  Goffe ;  which 
letters  he  showed  to  the  Court,  and  acquainted  them  that  forth- 
with upon  the  receipt  of  them  he  granted  his  letter  to  the  magis- 
trate of  New  Haven,  by  advice  and  concurrence  of  the  deputies 
there  to  make  present  and  diligent  search  throughout  their  town 
for  the  said  persons  accordingly;  which  letter  the  messengers 
carried,  but  found  not  the  magistrate  at  home ;  and  that  he  him- 


432  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

self  followed  after  the  messengers,  and  came  into  New  Haven  soon 
after  them,  the  13th  of  May,  1661,  bringing  with  him  Mr.  Crane, 
magistrate  at  Branford ;  who,  when  they  were  come,  sent  pres- 
ently for  the  magistrates  of  New  Haven  and  Milford,  and  the 
deputies  of  New  Haven  Court.  The  magistrates  thus  sent  for 
not  being  yet  come,  they  advised  with  the  deputies  about  the 
matter,  and,  after  a  short  debate  with  the  deputies,  were  writing 
a  warrant  for  search  for  the  aforesaid  colonels ;  but  the  magis- 
trates before  spoken  of  being  come,  upon  further  consideration 
(the  matter  being  weighty)  it  was  resolved  to  call  the  General 
Court  for  the  effectual  carrying  on  of  the  work.  The  deputy- 
governor  further  informed  the  Court  that  himself  and  the  magis- 
trates told  the  messengers  that  they  were  far  from  hindering  the 
search,  and  they  were  sorry  that  it  so  fell  out,  and  w^ere  resolved 
to  pursue  the  matter  as  that  an  answer  should  be  prepared  against 
their  return  from  the  Dutch. 

"  The  Court  being  met,  when  they  heard  the  matter  declared, 
and  had  heard  his  Majesty's  letter  and  the  letter  from  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Massachusetts,  they  all  declared  they  did  not  know 
that  they  were  in  the  colony,  or  had  been  for  divers  weeks  past, 
and  both  magistrates  and  deputies  wished  a  search  had  been 
sooner  made ;  and  did  now  order  that  the  magistrates  take  care 
and  send  forth  warrant  that  a  speedy,  diligent  search  be  made 
throughout  the  jurisdiction,  in  pursuance  of  his  Majesty's  com- 
mand, according  to  the  letters  received,  and  that  from  the  several 
plantations  a  return  be  made,  that  it  may  be  recorded.* 

*  The  following  is  a  copy  of  one  of  the  warrants,  and  of  the  return 
made  by  the  searchers :  — 

**  May  17,  1661. 

For  the  Marshal  or  Deputies  at  Milford. 

You  arc  to  make  diligent  search,  by  the  first,  throughout  the  whole 
town  of  Milford  and  the  precincts  thereof,  taking  with  you  two  or  three 
sufficient  persons,  and  calling  in  any  other  help  you  shall  see  4ieed  of,  who 
are  hereby  required  to  attend  for  your  assistance  upon  call ;  and  this  to 
Ix:  in  all  dwelling  houses,  bams  or  other  buildings  whatsoever  and  vessels 
in  the  harbor,  for  the  finding  and  apprehending  of  Colonel  Whalley  and 
Colonel  Goffc,  who  stand  charged  with  crimes  as  by  his  Majesty's  letter 
appears  j  and  being  found,  you  are  to  bring  them  to  the  Deputy  Governor, 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  433 

"  And  whereas  there  have  been  rumors  of  their  late  being  here 
at  New  Haven,  it  hath  been  inquired  into  and  several  persons 
examined,  but  could  find  no  truth  in  those  reports,  and  for  any 
thing  yet  doth  appear,  they  are  but  unjust  suspicions  and  ground- 
less reports  against  the  place,  to  raise  ill  surmises  and  reproaches." 

Learning  that  Mr.  Davenport  was  suspected  of  con- 
cealing them,  Whalley  and  Goffe  left  West  Rock  on 
the  nth  of  June,  and  showed  themselves  publicly,  that 
he  might  be  relieved  from  suspicion.  It  is  not  known 
at  the  present  day  where  they  spent  the  time  between 
the  I  ith  and  the  22d  of  the  month.  Mr.  Davenport,  in 
a  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Temple,  says  that  they  came  on 
the  22d  of  June  "from  another  colony  where  they 
were,   and    had  been   some  time,   to   New   Haven."  * 

or  some  other  magistrate,  to  be  sent  over  for  England,  according  to  his 
Majesty's  order.    Hereof  fail  not  at  peril. 

By  order  of  the  General  Court, 

As  attest,  William  Leete,  Deputy  Governor, 
Jasper  Crane, 
Matthew  Gilbert, 
Robert  Treat. 

In  the  marshal's  absence,  I  do  appoint  and  empower  you,  Thomas 
SanCord,  Nicholas  Camp,  and  James  Tapping  to  the  above  named  pow- 
ers, according  to  the  tenor  of  the  warrant ;  and  to  make  a  return  thereof 
under  your  hands  to  me  by  the  first. 

Robert  Treat. 

We,  the  said  persons,  appointed  to  serve  and  search  by  virtue  of  this 
our  warrant,  do  hereby  declare  and  testify  that  to  our  best  light  we  have 
the  2oth  of  May,  i66f ,  made  diligent  search  according  to  the  tenor  of  this 
warrant,  as  witness  our  hands. 

Thomas  Sanford 

Nicholas  Camp 

James  Tapping 

Lawrence  Ward,  hfs  I  mark 

^  It  has  been  said  that  '*  Mr.  Davenport*s  statement  looks  like  a  pre- 
varication."     Doubtless  it  was,  as  every  thing  which  the  New  Haven 


•  Searchers,^* 


434  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Perhaps  they  made  a  visit  to  Connecticut,  and  allowed 
themselves  to  be  seen  there  in  order  to  divert  attention 
from  New  Haven.  On  Saturday,  June  22,  they  came 
to  New  Haven,  and  remained  till  Monday,  causing  Mr. 
Gilbert,  who,  since  the  election  on  the  29th  of  May, 
had  been  deputy-governor,  to  be  informed  that  they 
were  ready  to  surrender,  if  necessary,  and  choosing  to 
do  so  rather  than  bring  ruin  upon  their  friends.  But 
on  Sunday  some  persons  came  to  them  advising  not  to 
surrender ;  and  so  on  Monday  they  disappeared  while 
the  magistrates  were  consulting  together,  and  taking 
measures  for  their  arrest.  "Thereupon  a  diligent 
search  was  renewed,  and  many  were  sent  forth  on  foot 
and  horseback  to  recover  them  into  their  hands." 
From  a  letter  of  Edward  Rawson,  secretary  of  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  to  Gov.  Leete,  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  these  pursuers  went  to  Branford.  But  if 
the  regicides  were  seen  going  in  that  direction,  as  if 
they  would  return  to  Connecticut,  it  was  only  to  mis- 
lead, for  the  same  night  they  were  lodged  in  their 
former  retreat  at  West  Rock.'     "They  continued  there 

people  said  about  the  two  regicides  was,  a  prevarication,  but  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  statement  was  literally  true.  Mr.  Davenport 
was  a  subtile  causuist,  but  was  not  reckless  of  the  truth. 

'  I  conjecture  that  going  eastward  as  far  as  Neck  Bridge,  they  hid 
themselves  under  it  till  the  pursuers  had  ridden  over,  and  then,  passing 
up  by  the  side  of  the  stream  to  the  mill,  went  by  Mill  Rock  to  the  house 
of  Sperr>*.  This  conjecture  accounts  for  the  tradition  that  they  were 
under  the  bridge  when  Kellond  and  Kirk  passed  over  it ;  in  which  form 
the  tradition  has  no  inherent  probability. 

The  tradition  that  they  were  concealed  in  the  Allerton  house,  I  cannot 
account  for  quite  so  satisfactorily.  Stiles  relates  that  their  friend,  Mrs. 
Eyers,  hearing  that  the  pursuers  were  coming,  sent  the  colonels  out  of 
the  house  with  directions  to  return  immediately.      They  returning,  she 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES.  435 

(says  Hutchinson,  who  had  access  to  a  diary  of  Goffe, 
not  now  extant),  sometimes  venturing  to  a  house  near 
the  cave,  until  the  19th  of  August,  when  the  search 
for  them  being  pretty  well  over,  they  ventured  to  the 
^^^Vv  house  of  one  Tomkins,  near  Milford,  where  they  re- 
3(.j  mained  two  years  without  so  much  as  going  into  the 
orchard.  After  that  they  took  a  little  more  liberty, 
and  made  themselves  known  to  several  persons  in 
whom  they  could  confide ;  and  each  of  them  frequently 
prayed,  and  also  exercised,  as  they  term  it,  or  preached 
at  private  meetings  in  their  chamber." 

The  regicides  lying  concealed  at  West  Rock,  Gov. 
Leete  received  on  the  30th  of  July  a  letter  written  by 
order  of  the  council  of  Massachusetts  informing  that 
they  had  heard  from  the  agent  of  their  colony  in 
London  that  many  complaints  were  made  against  New 
England  in  general,  and  that  though  the  address  to  his 

concealed  them  in  a  closet,  and  promptly  replied,  when  the  pursuers  asked 
for  the  colonels,  that  they  had  been  there,  but  had  recently  gone  away. 
Mrs.  Eyers,  granddaughter  of  the  Isaac  AUerton  who  came  in  the  May- 
flower, was  born  Sept.  27,  1653,  and  therefore  was  in  June,  1661,  less  than 
eight  years  of  age.  If,  therefore,  Whallcy  and  Goffe  were  concealed  in 
the  house  where  she  lived,  they  were  concealed  by  the  contrivance  of  her 
step-grandmother,  the  widow  Allcrton,  rather  than  of  the  person  who 
afterward  became  the  owner  of  the  Allerton  mansion,  and  the  wife  of 
Simon  Eyers.  The  tradition  may  have  been  handed  down  by  her,  but  she 
could  not  have  been  the  principal  actor.  Perhaps  the  colonels  were 
entertained  in  this  house  from  Saturday,  June  22,  to  Monday,  June  24,  and 
went  from  Mrs.  Allerton's  toward  Neck  Bridge  after  they  learned  that 
the  magistrates  had  issued  a  warrant  for  their  arrest.  This  would  account 
for  another  tradition;  viz.,  that  Marshal  Kimberlcy  attempted  to  arrest 
them  between  the  town  and  Neck  Bridge,  but  found  them  so  skilled  in  the 
art  of  self-defence  that  he  was  obliged  to  go  back  for  assistance.  For 
further  information  in  regard  to  Mrs.  Eyers  and  the  Allertons,  see  Dr. 
Bacon's  letter  to  Hon.  John  Davis,  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  XXVII.  243. 


4-ft 


436  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Majesty  which  Massachusetts  had  made,  came  season- 
ably and  had  a  gracious  answer,  yet  the  commissioners 
for  the  Plantations  had  taken  notice  that  the  other 
colonies  had  neglected  thus  to  recognize  the  king. 
The  secretary  adds,  — 

"  Further  I  am  required  to  signify  to  you  as  from  them  that  the 
non-attendance  with  diligence  to  execute  the  king's  majesty's  war- 
rant for  the  apprehending  of  Colonels  Whalley  and  GofFe  will 
much  hazard  the  present  state  of  these  colonies,  and  your  own 
particularly,  if  not  some  of  your  persons,  which  is  not  a  little 
afflictive  to  them ;  and  that  in  their  understanding  there  remains 
no  way  to  expiate  the  offence  and  preserve  yourselves  from  the 
danger  and  hazard  but  by  apprehending  the  said  persons,  who,  as 
we  are  informed,  are  yet  remaining  in  the  colony,  and  not  above  a 
fortnight  since  were  seen  there,  all  which  will  be  against  you.  Sir, 
your  own  welfare,  the  welfare  of  your  neighbors,  bespeak  your 
unwearied  pains  to  free  yourself  and  neighbors.  I  shall  not  add, 
having  so  lately,  by  a  few  lines  from  our  governor  and  myself 
looking  much  this  way,  communicated  our  sense  and  thoughts  of 
your  and  our  troubles,  and  have  as  yet  received  no  return,  but  com- 
mend you  to  God  and  his  rich  grace  for  your  guidance  and  direc- 
tion in  a  matter  of  such  moment,  as  his  Majesty  may  receive  full 
and  just  satisfaction,  the  mouths  of  all  opposers  stopped,  and  the 
profession  of  the  truth  that  is  in  you  and  us  may  not  in  the  least 
sufEer  by  your  actings  is  the  prayer  of 

Sir,  your  loving  friend, 

Edward  Rawson,  Secretary, 
In  the  name  and  by  order  of  the  Council." 

The  above  was  written  on  the  4th  of  July,  1661,  but 
remained  in  the  hand  of  the  writer  till  the  15th  of  the 
same  month,  when  he  added,  — 

"  Sir,  since  what  I  wrote,  news  and  certain  intelligence  is  come 
hither  of  the  two  colonels  being  at  New  Haven  from  Saturday  to 
Monday,  and  publicly  known ;  and,  however,  it  is  given  out  that 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES.  All 

they  came  to  surrender  themselves,  and  pretended  by  Mr.  Gilbert 
that  he  looked  when  they  would  have  come  in  and  delivered  up 
themselves,  never  setting  a  guard  about  the  house  nor  endeavoring 
to  secure  them,  but,  when  it  was  too  late,  to  send  to  Totoket,  &c. 
Sir,  how  this  will  be  taken  is  not  difficult  to  imagine.  To  be  sure, 
not  well ;  nay,  will  not  all  men  condemn  you  as  wanting  to  your- 
selves, and  that  you  have  something  to  rely  on,  that  you  hope,  at 
least,  will  answer  your  ends  ?  I  am  not  willing  to  meddle  with 
your  hopes,  but  if  it  be  a  duty  to  obey  such  lawful  warrants,  as  I 
believe  it  is,  the  neglect  thereof  will  prove  uncomfortable.  Pardon 
me,  sir;  it  is  my  desire  you  may  regain  your  peace  (and  if  you 
please  to  give  me  notice  when  you  will  send  the  two  colonels); 
though  Mr.  Woodgreen  is  bound  hence  within  a  month,  yet  if  you 
shall  give  me  assurance  of  their  coming,  I  shall  not  only  endeavor, 
but  do  hereby  engage,  to  cause  his  stay  a  fortnight,  nay,  three 
weeks,  rather  than  they  should  not  be  sent" 

At  a  general  court  held  at  New  Haven  for  the  juris- 
diction, Aug.  I,  i66i  :  —  "the  governor  informed  the 
Court  of  the  occasion  of  calling  them  together  at  this 
time,  and  among  the  rest  the  main  thing  insisted  on 
was  to  consider  what  application  to  make  to  the  king 
in  the  case  we  now  stood,  being  like  to  be  rendered 
worse  to  the  king  than  the  other  colonies,  they  seeing 
it  an  incumbent  duty  so  to  do.  The  governor  informed 
also  the  Court  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from  the 
Council  in  the  Bay,  which  was  read,  wherein  was  inti- 
mated of  sundry  complaints  in  England  made  against 
New  England,  and  that  the  committee  in  England  took 
notice  of  the  neglect  of  the  other  colonies  in  their  non- 
application  to  the  king. 

"  Now  the  Court,  taking  the  matter  into  serious  con- 
sideration, after  much  debate  and  advice  concluded  that 
this  writing  should  be  sent  to  the  Council  in  the  Bay, 
the  copy  whereof  is  as  followeth:"  — 


438  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

"Honored  Gentlemen,  —  Yours  dated  the  4th  of  July  (61), 
with  a  postscript  of  the  15th,  we  received  July  30,  which  was  com- 
municated to  our  general  court  Aug.  i,  who  considered  what  you 
please  to  relate  of  those  complaints  made  against  New  England, 
and  of  what  spirit  they  are  represented  to  be  of,  upon  occasion  of 
that  false  report  against  Capt.  Leveret,  whom  we  believe  to  have 
more  wisdom  and  honesty  than  so  to  report,  and  we  are  assured 
that  New  England  is  not  of  that  spirit.  And  as  for  the  other  colo- 
nies' neglect  in  non-application  with  yourselves  to  his  Majesty  last 
year,  it  hath  not  been  forborne  upon  any  such  account,  as  we  for 
our  parts  profess,  and  believe  for  our  neighbors,  but  only  in  such 
new  and  unaccustomed  matters  we  were  in  the  dark  to  hit  it  in  way 
of  agreement  as  to  a  form  satisfactory  that  might  be  acceptable; 
but  since  that  of  your  colony  hath  come  to  our  view,  it  is  much  to 
our  content,  and  we  solemnly  profess  from  our  hearts  to  own  and 
say  the  same  to  his  Majesty,  and  do  engage  to  him  full  subjection 
and  allegiance  with  yourselves  accordingly,  with  profession  of  the 
same  ends  in  coming  with  like  permission  and  combining  with 
yourselves  and  the  other  neighbor  colonies,  as  by  the  preface  of 
our  articles  may  appear;  upon  which  grounds  we  both  supplicate 
and  hope  to  find  a  like  protection,  privilege,  immunities,  and  favors, 
from  his  royal  Majesty.  And  as  for  that  you  note  of  our  not  so 
diligent  attendance  to  his  Majesty's  warrant,  we  have  given  you  an 
account  of  before,  that  it  was  not  done  out  of  any  mind  to  slight  or 
disown  his  Majesty's  authority  in  the  least,  nor  out  of  favor  to  the 
colonels ;  nor  did  it  hinder  the  effect  of  their  apprehending,  they 
being  gone  before  the  warrant  came  into  our  colony,  as  is  since 
fully  proved ;  but  only  there  was  a  gainsaying  of  the  gentlemen's 
earnestness,  who  retarded  their  own  business  to  wait  upon  ours 
without  commission ;  and  also  out  of  scruple  of  conscience  and  fear 
of  unfaithfulness  to  our  people  (who  committed  all  our  authority  to 
us  under  oath)  by  owning  a  general  governor,  unto  whom  the  war- 
rant was  directed,  as  such  implicitly,  and  that  upon  misinformation 
to  his  Majesty  given,  though  other  magistrates  were  mentioned,  yet 
(as  some  thought)  it  was  in  or  under  him,  which  oversight  (if  so  it 
shall  be  apprehended)  we  hope,  upon  our  humble  acknowledg- 
ment, his  Majesty  will  pardon,  as  also  that  other  and  greater 
bewailed  remissness  in  one,  in  not  securing  them  till  we  came  and 


THE  STUARTS  AND    THE  REGICIDES,  439 

knew  their  place,  out  of  over-much  belief  of  their  pretended  reality 
■  to  resign  up  themselves,  according  to  their  promise,  to  save  the 
country  harmless,  which  failing  is  so  much  the  more  lamented,  by 
how  much  more  we  had  used  all  diligence  to  press  for  such  a 
delivery  upon  some  of  those  that  had  showed  them  former  kind- 
ness, as  had  been  done  other  where,  when  as  none  of  the  magis- 
trates could  otherwise  do  any  thing  in  it,  they  being  altogether 
ignorant  where  they  were  or  how  to  come  at  them,  nor  truly  do 
they  now,  nor  can  we  believe  that  they  are  hid  anywhere  in  this 
colony,  since  that  departure  or  defeatment.  But  however  the  con- 
sequence prove,  we  must  wholly  rely  on  the  mercy  of  God  and  the 
king,  with  promise  to  do  our  endeavor  to  regain  them  if  opportu- 
nity serve.  Wherefore  in  this  our  great  distress  we  earnestly 
desire  your  aid  to  present  us  to  his  Majesty  in  our  cordial  owning 
and  complying  with  your  address,  as  if  it  had  been  done  and  said 
by  our  very  selves,  who  had  begun  to  draw  up  something  that  way, 
but  were  disheartened. through  sense  of  feebleness,  and  incapacity 
to  procure  a  meet  agent  to  present  it  in  our  disadvantaged  state» 
by  these  providences  occurring ;  hoping  you  will  favor  us  in  this 
latter  and  better  pleasing  manner  of  doing,  which  we  shall  take 
thankfully  from  you,  and  be  willing  to  join  in  the  proportionate 
share  of  charge  for  a  common  agent  to  solicit  New  England  affairs 
in  England,  which  we  think  necessary  to  procure  the  benefit  of  all 
acts  of  indemnity,  grace,  or  favor,  on  all  our  behalfs,  as  well  as  in 
other  respects  to  prevent  the  mischiefs  of  such  as  malign  and  seek 
to  misinform  against  us,  of  which  sort  there  be  many  to  comptot 
nowadays  with  great  sedulity.  If  you  shall  desert  us  in  this 
affliction  to  present  us  as  before,  by  the  transcript  of  this  our  letter 
or  otherwise,  together  with  the  petition  and  acknowledgment 
herewithal  sent,  we  shall  yet  look  up  to  our  God,  that  deliverance 
may  arise  another  way." 

This  letter  manifests  a  fear  of  e^il  results  to  the 
colony  and  to  the  magistrates  from  their  neglect  to 
apprehend  the  regicides.  It  was  doubtless  drawn  up 
by  Gov.  Leete,  who  by  this  time  was  so  much  in  fear 
for  himself  and  for  the  colony  that  the  fugitives  would 


440  HISTORY  OF  KEIV  HAVEN  COLO  AT  V. 

not  have  been  safe  if  he  had  known  where  to  put  his 
hand  on  them.     The  freemen  allowed  this  letter  to  be 
sent  as  the  sense  of  the  colony ;  and  perhaps    a    ma- 
jority sympathized  with  Leete  in  the  feeling  that  the 
safety  of  the  colony  required  their  extradition  if  found, 
and  agreed  with  him  in  the  belief  that  they  were  not  at 
that  time  within  its  territory ;  but  a  few  were    more 
courageous,  and,  quietly  allowing  the  letter  to  be  sent 
as  the  official  declaration  of  the  colony,  kept  to  them- 
selves their  knowledge  that  Whalley  and  Goffe  were 
still  within  the  jurisdiction.     Of  this  number  were  Gil- 
bert and  Davenport,  though  even  they  were  probably 
not  aware  that  the  fugitives  were  so  near  that  they 
could  see  the  turret  of  the  building  in  which  the  court 
was  held,  and  hear  the  rattle  of  the  drum  which  con- 
vened it. 

The  difference  of  opinion  on  this  subject  which  now 
obtained  among  the  leading  men  seems  to  have  occa- 
sioned some  sharpness  of  feeling.  Mr.  Hooke,  Whal- 
ley's  brother-in-law,  and  formerly  teacher  of  the  church 
at  New  Haven,  writes  from  England  about  ten  weeks 
after  this  general  court,  to  Mr.  Davenport,  *'  I  under- 
stand by  your  letter  what  you  have  lately  met  with 
from  Mr.  Leete,  &c.,"  and  proceeds  to  explain  that  a 
certain  letter  from  a  friend  in  England  to  Mr.  Street 
was  not  designed  to  caution  New  Haven  people  against 
befriending  the  regicides,  but  only  against  doing  it 
openly.  "  The  man  was  in  the  country-  when  he  wrote 
it,  who  sent  it  up  to  the  city  to  be  sent  by  what  hand 
he  knew  not,  nor  yet  knoweth  who  carried  it ;  and  such 
were  the  times  that  he  durst  not  express  matters  as  he 
would,  but  he  foresaw  what  fell  out  among  you,  and  was 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  44I 

willing  you  should  be  secured  as  well  as  his  other 
friends,  and  therefore  he  wrote  that  they  might  not  be 
found  among  you,  but  provided  for  by  you  in  some 
secret  places.  ...  I  hope  yet  all  will  be  well ;  though 
now  I  hear  (as  I  am  writing)  of  another  order  to  be 
sent  over,  yet  still  I  believe  God  will  suffer  no  man  to 
touch  you.  I  am  almost  amazed  sometimes  to  see 
what  cross  capers  some  of  you  do  make.  I  should 
break  my  shins  should  I  do  the  like."  Gov.  Leete  had 
apparently  understood  the  cautionary  letter  to  Mr. 
Street  as  advising  an  entire  withholding  of  entertain- 
ment from  the  regicides,  and  had  changed  his  position 
by  a  cross  caper,  such  as  Mr.  Hooke  thought  himself 
incapable  of  executing. 

Another  intimation  that  Mr.  Leete  had  become  more 
penitent  than  others  approved,  is  contained  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Gilbert  from  Robert  Newman,  formerly  ruling 
elder  in  the  church  at  New  Haven,  but  now  resident 
in  England.  He  writes,  **  I  am  sorry  to  see  that  you 
should  be  so  much  surprised  with  fears  of  what  men 
can  or  may  do  unto  you.  The  fear  of  an  evil  is  oft- 
times  more  than  the  evil  feared.  I  hear  of  no  danger, 
nor  do  I  think  any  will  attend  you  for  that  matter. 
Had  not  W.  L.  written  such  a  pitiful  letter  over,  the 
business,  I  think,  would  have  died.  What  it  may  do  to 
him  I  know  not :  they  have  greater  matters  than  that 
to  exercise  their  thoughts.'*  On  the  same  day  another 
friend  in  England  wrote  to  Gilbert,  **  We  are  very  apt 
to  be  more  afraid  than  we  ought  to  be,  or  need  to  be." 

The  letter  drawn  up  by  Gov.  Leete,  and  sanctioned 
by  the  General  Court  on  the  ist  of  August,  was  sent 
to  Boston  by  special  messengers,  who  were  to  "see 


442  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

what  would  be  done  in  the  case."  Twenty  days  later 
another  court  was  held,  occasioned  by  information  that 
Massachusetts  had,  on  the  7th  of  August,  formally  pro- 
claimed the  king.  Anxious  not  to  come  short  in 
demonstrations  of  loyalty,  "it  was  voted  and  concluded 
as  an  act  of  the  General  Court,'*  that  the  king  should 
be  proclaimed. 

"And  for  the  time  of  doing  it,  it  was  concluded  to  be  done  the 
next  morning  at  nine  of  the  clock,  and  the  military  company  was 
desired  to  come  to  the  solemnizing  of  it  And  the  form  of  the 
proclamation  is  as  followeth :  — 

"  Although  we  have  not  received  any  form  of  proclamation  by 
order  from  his  Majesty  or  Council  of  State,  for  the  proclaiming 
his  Majesty  in  this  colony,  yet  the  Court  taking  encouragement 
from  what  halh  been  in  the  rest  of  the  United  Colonies,  hath 
thought  fit  to  declare  publicly  and  proclaim  that  we  do  acknowledge 
his  Royal  Highness,  Charles  the  Second,  King  of  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  and  Ireland,  to  be  our  Sovereign  Lord  and  King,  and 
that  we  do  acknowledge  ourselves  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  to 
be  his  Majesty^s  loyal  and  faithful  subjects."  God  save  the 
King. 

These  public  demonstrations  of  loyalty  were  prompted 
in  large  measure  by  fear  of  evil  consequences  to  the 
colony,  on  account  of  its  neglect  to  apprehend  the  regi- 
cides. They  were  supplemented  with  every  possible 
attempt  to  secure  the  aid  of  those  whose  position  ena- 
bled them  to  make  intercession  with  the  king.  Before 
the  official  communication  of  Secretary  Ravvson  had 
been  received  at  New  Haven,  a  letter  from  Davenport 
to  Deputy-Gov.  Bellingham  was  on  its  way  to  Bos- 
ton, enclosing  what  he  calls  an  apology.  In  August, 
fearing  that  his  apology  had  miscarried,  he  wrote  to 
Sir  Thomas  Temple,  enclosing  a  copy  of  the  apology, 


THE  STUARTS  AND   THE  REGICIDES,  443 

and  very  humbly  beseeching  his  good  offices  in  averting 
from  the  colony  of  New  Haven  the  displeasure  of  the 
king.  In  September  Gov.  Leete  went  to  Boston,  prob- 
ably on  his  way  to  or  from  the  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  United  Colonies  at  Plymouth,  to  consult 
with  friends  there  how  he  might  escape  the  punishment 
of  his  neglect.  The  result  of  the  conference  was  a 
letter  from  John  Norton,  teacher  of  the  church  at  Bos- 
ton, to  Richard  Baxter,  one  of  the  king's  chaplains.  It 
is  to  be  inferred  from  Norton's  letter  that  there  had 
been  a  change  in  Leete's  spirit  since  he  received  Kel- 
lond  and  Kirk  in  his  house  at  Guilford  and  read  their 
instructions  aloud  in  the  presence  of  his  neighbors. 
Norton  says :  — 

**  He,  being  conscious  of  indiscretion  and  some  neglect  (not  to 
say  how  it  came  about)  in  relation  to  the  expediting  the  executing 
of  the  warrant,  according  to  his  duty,  sent  from  his  Majesty  for 
the  apprehending  of  the  two  colonels,  is  not  without  fear  of  some 
displeasure  that  may  follow  thereupon,  and  indeed  hath  almost 
ever  since  been  a  man  depressed  in  his  spirit  for  the  neglect 
wherewith  he  chargeth  himself  therein.  His  endeavors  also  since 
have  been  accordingly,  and  that  in  full  degree ;  as,  besides  his  own 
testimony,  his  neighbors  attest  they  see  not  what  he  could  have 
done  more." 

At  their  meeting  in  September,  the  commission- 
ers of  the  United  Colonies  issued  an  order  forbidding 
the  entertainment  of  Whallcy  and  Goffe,  and  requiring 
all  persons  who  knew  where  they  were  to  make  known 
their  hiding-place.  This  order,  with  the  other  pro- 
ceedings, was  signed  by  William  Leete  and  Benjamin 
Fenn,  commissioners  for  New  Haven,  the  last  named 
an   inhabitant   of   Milford,  where  Whalley  and   Goffe 


444  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

were  then  concealed.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Fenn 
was  in  the  secret,  and  no  good  reason  can  be  alleged 
why  he  should  have  been  embarrassed  with  useless 
information. 

Whalley  and  Goffe  remained  in  Milford  from  Aug. 
19,  1661,  till  July,  1664,  when,  hearing  that  four  royal 
commissioners  had  arrived  in  Boston,  charged  to  inquire 
after  persons  attainted  of  high  treason,  they  thought 
it  necessary  to  leave  the  place  where  they  had  so  long 
resided.  At  first  they  retired  to  their  cave  on  West 
Rock.  But  after  they  had  remained  there  eight  or 
ten  days,  some  Indians,  in  their  hunting,  discovered  the 
cave  with  the  bed  in  it.  This  being  reported,  they 
were  obliged  to  find  another  temporary  retreat,  the 
location  of  which  is  unknown.  Probably  they  were 
unwillingly  tarrying  in  New  Haven  till  arrangements 
could  be  made  for  their  removal  to  a  less  suspected 
and  less  frequented  place.  Starting  on  the  13th  of 
October,  and  travelling  only  by  night,  they  directed 
their  steps  toward  Hadlcy,  Mass.,  a  plantation  in  the 
remotest  north-western  frontier  of  the  New  England 
settlements,  recently  established  by  emigrants  from 
Hartford  and  Wethersfield.  Here  they  were,  by  pre- 
arrangement,  received  and  concealed  by  Mr.  John  Rus- 
sell, the  minister  of  the  town.  With  him  they  both 
continued  to  reside  till  the  death  of  Whalley,  about  ten 
years  afterward.  But  with  their  removal  to  Hadley 
their  connection  with  the  history  of  the  New  Haven 
colony  ceases. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CONNECTICUT    PROCURES    A    CHARTER   WHICH    COVERS 
THE   TERRITORY   OF   NEW   HAVEN. 

KING  JAMES  THE  FIRST  incorporated  by  let- 
ters-patent  the  "  Council  established  at  Plymouth 
in  the  county  of  Devon  for  the  planting,  ruling,  and  gov- 
erning of  New  England  in  America,"  and  granted  unto 
them  and  their  successors  and  assigns  all  that  part 
of  America  lying  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-eighth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  and  extending  from  sea  to 
sea.  This  "Council  for  New  England,"  having  sold 
patents  to  New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  granted 
to  its  president,  Robert,  Earl  of  Warwick,  a  territory 
supposed  to  be  bounded  on  the  east  and  north  by 
New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  and  the  grant  was 
confirmed  by  King  Charles  the  First.  On  the  19th 
of  March  the  said  Robert,  Earl  of  Warwick,  conveyed 
his  title  to  the  right  honorable  William,  viscount  Say 
and  Seal,  the  right  honorable  Robert,  Lord  Brook,  the 
right  honorable  Lord  Rich,  and  the  honorable  Charles 
Fiennes,  Esq.,  Sir  Nathanael  Rich,  Knt.,  Sir  Rich- 
ard Saltonstall,  Knt.,  Richard  Knightly,  Esq.,  John 
Pym,  Esq.,  John  Hampden,  John  Humphrey,  Esq.,  and 
Herbert  Pelham,  Esq.,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  and 
their  associates,  forever.     He  describes  the  territory  as 

445 


446  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

"  all  that  part  of  New  England  in  America,  which  lies 
and  extends  itself  from  a  river  there  called  Narragan- 
set  River,  the  space  of  forty  leagues  upon  a  straight 
line  near  the  sea-shore  toward  the  south-west,  west 
and  by  south,  or  west,  as  the  coast  lieth  towards  Vir- 
ginia, accounting  three  English  miles  to  the  league ; 
and  also  all  and  singular  the  lands  and  hereditaments 
whatsoever,  lying  and  being  within  the  lands  aforesaid, 
north  and  south  in  latitude  and  breadth,  and  in  length 
and  longitude,  of  and  within  all  the  breadth  aforesaid, 
throughout  the  main  lands  there,  from  the  Western 
Ocean  to  the  South  Sea." 

The  first  planters  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Weth- 
ersfield  settled  themselves  in  the  territory  thus  con- 
veyed by  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  without  asking  leave 
of  the  patentees.  Some  years  afterward,  a  fort  having 
been  meanwhile  built  at  Saybrook  by  the  patentees, . 
the  colonial  government  purchased  of  Mr.  Fenwick,  the 
representative  of  the  patentees,  the  fort  and  the  lands 
upon  the  river.  In  the  articles  of  agreement  Mr.  F*en- 
wick  also  promises  that  "  all  the  lands  from  Narragan- 
set  River  to  the  fort  of  Saybrook,  mentioned  in  a  patent 
granted  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick  to  certain  nobles  and 
gentlemen,  shall  fall  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecti- 
cut if  it  come  into  his  power,"  but  makes  no  mention 
of,  or  allusion  to,  the  territory  occupied  by  the  New 
Haven  colony. 

So  far  as  appears,  no  claim  was  made  by  Connecticut 
to  the  territory  of  New  Haven  till  1660.  In  that  year 
the  town  of  New  Haven,  wishing  to  "  set  out  the  bounds 
with  lasting  marks,"  between  them  and  Connecticut, 
appointed  Mr.  Yale,  William  Andrews,  John  Cooper, 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A   CHARTER.         447 

John  Brocket,  and  Nathaniel  Merriman,  a  committee 
to  do  it  with  the  help  of  Montowese,  the  late  proprie- 
tor. Connecticut  took  offence  at  the  proceedings  of 
this  committee,  and  sent  to  New  Haven  the  following 
letter :  — 

"  Honored  Gentlemen,  —  This  Court  having  received  informa- 
tion, not  only  by  what  appears  in  one  of  your  laws  respecting  the 
purchase  of  land  from  the  Indians,  wherein  there  is  a  seeming 
challenge  of  very  large  interests  of  lands,  and  likewise  by  what 
intelligence  we  have  had  of  your  stretching  your  bounds  up  toward 
us,  by  marking  trees  on  this  side  Pilgrims'  Harbor,*  which  things, 
as  ye  intrench  upon  our  interest,  so  they  are  not  satisfying  or 
contentful,  nor  do  we  apprehend  it  a  course  furthering  or  strength- 
ening that  friendly  correspondency  that  we  desire  and  ought  to  be 
perpetuated  betwixt  neighbors  and  confederates;  especially  in 
that  we  conceive  you  cannot  be  ignorant  of  our  real  and  true  right 
to  those  parts  of  the  country  where  you  are  seated,  both  by  con- 
quest, purchase,  and  possession;  and  though  hitherto  we  have 
been  silent  and  altogether  forborne  to  make  any  absolute  challenge 
to  our  own,  as  before,  yet  now  we  see  a  necessity  at  least  to  revive 
the  memorial  of  our  right  and  interest,  and  therefore  do  desire  that 
there  may  be  a  cessation  of  further  proceedings  in  this  nature,  until 
upon  mature  consideration  there  may  be  a  determinate  settlement 
and  mutual  concurrence  twixt  yourselves  and  this  colony  in  refer- 
ence to  the  dividing  lx)unds  twixt  the  two  colonies.  It  is  further  de- 
sired and  requested  by  us  that  if  there  be  any  thing  extant  on  rec- 
ord with  you  that  may  further  the  deciding  this  matter,  it  may  be 
produced,  and  that  there  may  be  a  time  and  place  appointed,  when 
some  deputed  for  that  end,  furnished  with  full  power,  may  meet, 
that  so  a  loving  issue  may  be  effected  to  prevent  further  troubles. 
And  in  case  there  be  no  record  of  grant  or  allowance  from  this 

*  Pilgrims*  Harbor,  it  appears,  was  so  called  before  this  letter  was 
written.  It  was  probably  a  hut  where  travellers  between  Hartford  and 
New  Haven  found  shelter.  If  the  regicides  ever  made  use  of  it,  it  was 
after  this  letter  was  written.  It  was  not,  as  President  Stiles  suggests, 
called  Pilgrims*  Harbor  because  the  regicides  lodged  in  it 


448  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

colony,  resp>ecting  the  surrender  not  only  of  lands  possessed  by 
you  and  improved,  but  also  such  lands  as  it  seems  to  us  that  you, 
under  some  pretended  or  assumed  right,  have  induced  by  your 
bounds  within  your  liberties,  that  you  would  be  pleased  to  consider 
on  some  speedy  course,  whereby  a  compliance  and  condescendency 
to  what  is  necessary  and  convenient  for  your  future  comfort  may 
be  obtained  from  us,  the  true  proprietors  of  these  parts  of  coun- 
tr}'.  We  desire  your  return  to  our  General  Court  in  reference  to 
our  propositions,  with  what  convenient  speed  may  be,  that  so  what 
is  desired  by  us  in  point  of  mutual  and  neighborly  correspondence, 
according  to  the  rules  of  justice  and  righteousness,  may  be  still 
maintained  and  continued/' 

Action  was  taken  on  this  letter  at  a  general  court 
held  at  New  Haven  for  the  jurisdiction,  May  29,  1661. 
It  was  "  ordered  that  a  committee  be  chosen  by  this 
Court  for  the  treating  with  and  issuing  of  any  seeming 
difference  betwixt  Connecticut  Colony  and  this,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  dividing  bounds  betwixt  them,  and  of  some 
seeming  right  to  this  jurisdiction,  which  they  pretend 
in  a  letter  sent  to  this  General  Court.'* 

This  order  was  passed  thirteen  days  after  the  General 
Court  of  Connecticut  had  desired  and  authorized  Gov. 
Winthrop  to  act  as  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  present- 
ing their  address  to  the  king,  and  in  procuring  a 
patent.  Though  the  extant  copy  of  the  letter  in  which 
Connecticut  for  the  first  time  lays  claim  to  the  territory 
of  New  Haven  bears  no  date,  it  was  written  about  the 
time  when  they  were  considering  the  expediency  of 
applying  for  the  charter  which  they  soon  after  obtained. 
They  had  no  copy  of  the  conveyance  from  the  Earl  of 
Warwick ;  and  if  they  had  possessed  a  copy,  or  even 
the  original,  Mr.  Fenwick  had  conveyed  to  them  only 
what  his  agreement  specified.     It  is  evident  that  about 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A    CHARTER,         449 

this  time  they  conceived  the  design  of  procuring  a  royal 
charter  which  should  secure  to  them  the  whole  territory 
conveyed  to  Lord  Say  and  Seal  and  others,  by  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  even  if  it  should  include  the  territory  of 
New  Haven.  They  justified  themselves  in  doing  so  on 
the  ground,  that,  having  paid  a  large  sum  to  Mr.  Fen- 
wick,  they  ought  to  have  received  for  it  all  the  territory 
covered  by  the  patent  which  he  and  his  associates 
possessed.  They  felt  and  represented  to  the  aged  Lord 
Say  and  Seal  that  Mr.  Fen  wick  had  dealt  hardly  with 
them,  and  that  they  ought  to  receive  whatever  was 
reserved  by  him  as  the  representative  of  the  patentees. 
While  they  were  all  agreed  that  it  was  right  for  Con- 
necticut to  acquire,  if  possible,  a  legal  title  as  extensive 
as  the  patent  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  New 
Haven  people  having  paid  nothing  to  the  patentees, 
they  were  not  of  one  mind  as  to  the  disposition  to  be 
made  of  New  Haven  ;  some  holding  that  New  Haven 
should  be  at  liberty  to  join  with  them  or  not,  whil6 
others  maintained  that  the  welfare  of  all  parties  justi- 
fied the  compulsion  of  New  Haven  into  union  with 
Connecticut.  Gov.  Winthrop  was  himself  of  the  first- 
mentioned  party ;  for  when  Davenport,  hearing  what 
was  going  on  at  Hartford,  wrote  to  his  friend,  warning 
him  **  not  to  have  his  hand  in  so  unrighteous  an  act  as 
so  far  to  extend  the  line  of  their  patent,  that  the  colony 
of  New  Haven  should  be  involved  within  it,"  Win- 
throp replied,'  "that  the  magistrates  had  agreed  and 

'  The  extract  is  from  Davenport's  report  of  Winthrop*s  letters  in 
"New  Haven's  Case  Stated."  Winthrop  wrote  twice  "from  two  several 
places : "  first  from  Middletown,  and  again  from  New  Amsterdam  "at  his 
going  away."    This  looks  as  if  he  did  not  pass  through  New  Haven  in 


450  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

expressed  in  the  presence  of  some  ministers,  that,  if 
their  line  should  reach  us  (which  they  knew  not,  the 
copy  being  in  England),  yet  New  Haven  Colony  should 
be  at  full  liberty  to  join  with  them  or  not." 

Embarking  at  New  Amsterdam  some  time  in  August, 
Winthrop  went  to  England,  both  to  transact  business 
of  his  own  and  to  execute  the  commission  with  which 
he  was  intrusted  by  Connecticut.  He  was  most  favora- 
bly received  by  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  to  whom  he  carried 
a  letter  from  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut.  His 
lordship  writes  to  him,  Dec.  14,  1661 :  — 

"  Far  my  very  laving  friend^  Mr.  John  Winthrop^  living  in  Cole- 
man Street^  at  one  Mrs,  Whiting^ s  house^  near  the  church, 

"Mr.  Winthrop,  —  I  received  your  letter  by  Mr.  Richards, 
and  I  would  have  been  glad  to  have  had  an  opportunity  of  being 
at  London  myself  to  have  done  you  and  my  good  friends  in  New 
England  the  best  service  I  could;  but  my  weakness  hath  been 
such,  and  my  old  disease  of  the  gout  falling  upon  me,  I  did  desire 
leave  not  to  come  up  this  winter,  but  I  have  writ  to  the  Earl  of 
Manchester,  lord  chamberlain  of  His  Majesty's  household,  to  g^ve 
you  the  best  assistance  he  may;  and  indeed,  he  is  a  noble  and 
worthy  lord,  and  one  that  loves  those  that  are  godly.  And  he  and 
I  did  join  together,  that  our  godly  friends  of  New  England  might 
enjoy  their  just  rights  and  liberties ;  and  this.  Col.  Crowne,  who, 
I  hear,  is  still  in  London,  can  fully  inform  you.  Concerning  that 
of  Connecticut,  I  am  not  able  to  remember  all  the  particulars  ;  but 
I  have  written  to  my  lord  chamberlain,  that  when  you  shall  attend 
him  (which  I  think  will  be  best  for  you  to  do,  and  therefore  I  have 
enclosed  a  letter  to  him  in  yours),  that  you  may  deliver  it,  and  I 

going  from  Hartford  to  his  place  of  embarkation.  A  passage  in  a  shallop 
down  the  river  was  more  convenient  for  one  who  was  on  the  way  to 
Europe  than  a  horseback-ride  through  the  country.  From  a  letter  of 
Willet  to  Winthrop  printed  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  xli.,  p.  396,  it  appears 
that  Winthrop  went  to  England  by  way  of  Holland. 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A   CHARTER.         451 

have  desired  him  to  acquaint  you  where  you  may  speak  with  Mr. 
Jesup,  who,  when  we  had  the  patent,  was  our  clerk,  and  he,  I 
believe,  is  able  to  inform  you  best  about  it,  and  I  have  desired  my 
lord  to  wish  him  so  to  do.  I  do  think  he  is  now  in  London.  My 
love  remembered  unto  you,  I  shall  remain, 

"  Your  very  loving  friend, 

"W.  Say  and  Seal." 

Lord  Say  and  Seal,  and  the  other  Puritan  lords  and 
gentlemen  to  whom  the  Earl  of  Warwick  conveyed  his 
title  to  Connecticut,  Jiad  secured  the  territory  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  a  Puritan  colony,  and  with  the 
expectation  that  some  of  themselves  would  personally 
engage  in  the  enterprise.  Twenty-five  years  before, 
Winthrop  himself  had  been  constituted  their  agent, 
with  instructions  **  to  provide  able  men  to  the  number 
of  fifty  at  the  least,  for  making  of  fortifications  and 
building  of  houses  at  the  river  Connecticut  and  the 
harbor  adjoining,  first  for  their  own  present  accommo- 
dations, and  then  such  houses  as  may  receive  men  of 
quality,  which  latter  houses  we  would  have  to  be  builded 
within  the  fort."  Not  one,  however,  of  the  lords  and 
gentlemen  named  by  Warwick  in  his  conveyance,  came 
to  Connecticut.  Of  the  "men  of  quality"  who  in  1635 
signed  the  agreement  with  Winthrop,  the  only  one  that 
came  over  was  George  Fenwick ;  and  he  was  not  one 
of  the  original  patentees,  but  had  become  a  partner  in 
the  company  subsequent  to  the  conveyance  from  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  in  163 1.  He  seems  from  the  day  of 
his  arrival  to  have  full  power  to  dispose  of  every  thing 
belonging  to  the  company ;  and  in  his  conveyance  of 
the  fort  and  the  lands  on  the  river  to  the  colony  of 
Connecticut  he  makes  no  mention  of  any  other  con- 


452  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

veyor  than  himself.  His  whole  conduct  is  that  of  a 
principal  rather  than  of  an  agent.  He  had  doubtless 
acquired  from  the  other  partners  all  their  rights.  At 
what  date  he  had  become  sole  proprietor,  we  cannot 
determine.  Perhaps  it  was  before  he  came  over  in 
1639  J  fo^  most  of  the  patentees  were  then  and  had 
been  for  some  time  so  earnestly  and  deeply  engaged 
in  saving  their  native  land  from  the  encroachments  of 
tyranny,  that  they  must  have  relinquished  the  idea  of 
emigration.  Notably,  two  of  them.  Viscount  Say  and 
Seal  and  John  Hampden,  had  committed  themselves  to 
resist  the  requirement  of  ship-money ;  and  Hampden 
was  prosecuted  rather  than  Say  and  Seal,  only  because 
his  case  had  a  prior  standing  on  the  docket.  At  all 
events,  Fenwick  talks  and  acts,  in  1644  and  1645,  as 
if  he  were  sole  proprietor.  In  1644  he  makes  the  con- 
veyance before  mentioned,  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut 
in  his  own  name ;  and  in  1645  he  makes  a  free  gift  to 
the  plantation  of  Guilford  of  land,  which,  in  his  sale  to 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  he  had  reserved  for  his 
plantation  of  Saybrook.  His  letter  of  gift  is  so  illus- 
trative of  his  character  and  of  the  condition  of  Guilford 
as  to  deserve  transcription  in  full.     It  is  as  follows :  — 

"  Mr.  Leete,  —  I  have  been  moved  by  Mr.  Wliitfield  to  enlarge 
the  bounds  of  your  plantation,  which  otherwise,  he  told  me,  could 
not  comfortably  subsist,  unto  Hammonassett  River ;  to  gratify  so 
good  a  friend,  and  to  supply  your  wants,  I  have  yielded  to  his 
request,  which,  according  to  his  request,  by  this  bearer  I  signify  to 
you  for  your  own  and  the  plantation's  better  satisfaction,  hoping 
it  will  be  a  means  fully  to  settle  such  who,  for  want  of  fit  accom- 
modation, begun  to  be  wavering  amongst  you ;  and  I  would  com- 
mend to  your  consideration  one  particular,  which,  I  conceive,  might 
tend  to  common  advantage,  and  that  is,  when  you  are  all  suited  to 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A    CHARTER,         453 

your  present  content,  you  will  bind  yourselves  more  strictly  for  con- 
tinuing together ;  for  however  in  former  times  (while  chapmen  and 
money  were  plentiful)  some  have  gained  by  removes,  yet  in  these 
latter  times  it  doth  not  only  weaken  and  discourage  the  plantation 
deserted,  but  also  wastes  and  consumes  the  estates  of  those  that 
remove.  Rolling  stones  gather  no  moss  in  these  times,  and  our 
conditions  now  are  not  to  expect  great  things.  Small  things,  nay, 
moderate  things,  should  content  us.  A  warm  fireside,  and  a  peace- 
able habitation,  with  the  chief  of  God's  mercies,  the  gospel  of 
peace,  is  no  ordinary  mercy,  though  other  things  were  mean.  I 
intended  only  one  word,  but  the  desire  of  the  common  good  and 
settlement  hath  drawn  me  a  little  further. 

"  For  the  consideration  Mr.  Whitfield  told  me  you  were  willing 
to  give  me  for  my  purchase,  I  leave  it  wholly  to  yourselves.  I 
look  not  to  my  own  profit,  but  to  your  comfort.  Only  one  thing 
I  must  entreat  you  to  take  notice  of,  that  when  I  understood  that 
that  land  might  be  useful  for  your  plantation,  I  did  desire  to  ex- 
press my  love  to  Mr.  Whitfield  and  his  children,  and  therefore 
offered  him  to  suit  his  own  occasions,  which  he,  more  intending 
your  common  advantage  than  his  own  particular,  hath  hitherto 
neglected ;  yet  my  desire  now  is  that  you  would  suit  him  to  his 
content ;  and  that  he  would  accept  of  what  shall  be  allotted  him  as 
a  testimony  of  my  love  intended  to  him,  before  I  give  up  my 
interest  to  your  plantation,  and  that  therefore  he  may  hold  it  free 
from  charge  as  I  have  signified  to  himself.  I  will  not  now  trouble 
you  further,  but  with  my  love  to  yourself  and  plantation,  rest 

"  Your  loving  friend  and  neighbor, 
"Saybrook,  Oct  22, 1645."  "  George  Fenwick. 


Lord  Say  and  Seal,  though  he  had  long  since  reKn- 
quished  the  expectation  of  removing  to  America,  re- 
tained the  friendly  feeling  he  had  ever  cherished  toward 
the  planters  of  New  England,  and  was  in  a  position, 
when  Connecticut  sought  a  royal  charter,  where  his 
influence  was  very  powerful.  Although  he  had  opposed 
the  tyranny  of  Charles  the  First,  he  was  a  royalist  in 


454  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

principle,  and  disapproved  of  the  extreme  measures  to 
which  the  popular  party  were  carried  by  the  current  of 
events.  During  the  commonwealth  he  lived  in  retire- 
ment, and  was  among  the  first  to  move,  when  opportu- 
nity offered,  for  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  constitu- 
tion. As  a  reward  for  his  services,  Charles  the  Second 
had  made  him  lord  privy  seal. 

The  Earl  of  Manchester,  whom  Say  and  Seal  mentions 
in  his  letter  to  Winthrop,  was  also  a  Puritan.  He  like- 
wise, and  for  similar  reasons,  was  high  in  office,  and 
high  in  favor  with  the  king.  Forced  to  resign  his  com- 
mission as  commander-in-chief  of  one  of  the  grand 
divisions  of  the  parliamentary  army,  by  the  intrigues 
of  men  who  wished  to  eliminate  both  royalty  and  aris- 
tocracy from  the  constitution,  he,  too,  had  lived  for 
years  in  retirement,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  assist 
in  restoring  the  ancient  form  of  government.  He  was 
now  lord  chamberlain,  and  more  active  in  public  affairs 
than  his  aged  friend.  Say  and  Seal. 

Winthrop  himself  was  singularly  well  qualified  for 
the  negotiation  in  which  he  had  engaged.  A  univer- 
sity scholar,  he  had  made  the  tour  of  the  Continent  as 
far  as  to  Constantinople  before  he  emigrated  to  New 
England.  Gifted  by  nature,  and  polished  with  the  best 
European  culture,  he  was  qualified  to  converse  on  those 
subjects  which  were  everywhere  discussed  in  society, 
and  by  his  experience  in  America  was  able  to  discourse 
of  a  country  full  of  marvels  to  Englishmen,  whether 
they  had  travelled  on  the  Continent  or  journeyed  only 
within  their  native  land. 

Every  thing  seemed  to  favor  his  undertaking. 
Though  the  colony  had  no  copy  of  the  old  patent,  one 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A    CHARTER,         45$ 

was  found  among  the  papers  of  Gov.  Hopkins,  and 
was  by  his  executor  delivered  to  Winthrop.  The  lord 
chamberlain,  moved  by  the  lord  privy  seal,  as  well  as  by 
his  own  love  to  "those  that  are  godly,"  lent  to  the 
Puritan  colony  his  influence  with  the  king.  Mather 
relates  that  Winthrop  had  a  ring  which  his  grandfather 
received  from  King  Charles  the  First,  and  that  the 
acceptance  by  his  Majesty  of  this  souvenir  of  his 
father  effectually  pledged  him  to  favor  the  suppliant 
who  offered  it. 

The  new  charter  was  in  every  respect  as  Winthrop 
would  desire  it  to  be.  The  boundaries  of  the  territory 
it  confirmed  to  Connecticut  were  the  same  as  in  the 
patent  of  1631.  "With  regard  to  powers  of  govern- 
ment, the  charter  was"  (says  Bancroft)  "still  more 
extraordinary.  It  conferred  on  the  colonists  unquali- 
fied power  to  govern  themselves.  They  were  allowed 
to  elect  all  their  own  officers,  to  enact  their  own  laws, 
to  administer  justice  without  appeals  to  England,  to 
inflict  punishments,  to  confer  pardons,  and,  in  a  word, 
to  exercise  every  power,  deliberative  and  active.  The 
king,  far  from  reserving  a  negative  on  the  acts  of  the 
colony,  did  not  even  require  that  the  laws  should  be 
transmitted  for  his  inspection  ;  and  no  provision  was 
made  for  the  interference  of  the  English  government, 
in  any  event  whatever.  Connecticut  was  independent 
except  in  name." 

Clearly  the  terms  of  the  charter  were  dictated  by 
Winthrop.  Both  the  boundaries  and  the  powers  of 
government  were  such  as  he  asked  for.  He  was  re- 
solved, when  he  left  Hartford,  to  ask  for  all  the  terri- 
tory included  by  the  old  patent,  even  if  the  line  should 
reach  so  as  to  include  a  sister  colony. 


456  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

What,  then,  was  his  expectation  in  regard  to  the 
Jurisdiction  of  New  Haven  ?  Plainly  it  was,  if  we  may 
trust  his  own  testimony,  that  New  Haven  should  be  at 
liberty  to  join  with  them  or  not.  Though  he  had  no 
intention  of  absorbing  New  Haven  by  compulsion,  he 
believed  that  it  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  all  to 
be  united  in  one  jurisdiction  by  mutual  agreement. 
There  were  in  the  colony  of  New  Haven  some  who 
were  of  the  same  opinion.  Gov.  Leete,  "both  by 
speech  and  letter,"  urged  Winthrop  to  include  New 
Haven  within  the  territory  he  should  ask  for  Connect- 
icut. Leete  may  have  been  more  solicitous  for  com- 
prehension at  that  time  than  two  or  three  years  later  ; 
for  Winthrop  embarked  when  New  Haven  was  more 
apprehensive  of  the  royal  displeasure  than  at  any- 
other  time.  Connecticut,  in  reply  to  New  Haven's 
Case  Stated,  says,  "  By  your  then  chief  in  government, 
our  governor  was  solicited  to  include  New  Haven  with- 
in our  patent,  both  by  speech  and  letter ;  and  friends 
in  England  were  improved  by  some  of  you  to  persuade 
to  and  promote  the  same,  and,  according  to  your  de- 
sires, attended  the  best  expedient  to  express  sincerity 
of  love,  your  case  and  condition  at  tliat  time  duly  con-- 
sideredy  The  obvious  interpretation  of  this  language 
is  that  Leete  desired,  in  the  danger  which  threatened 
New  Haven,  that  she  might  be  allowed  to  take  shelter 
under  the  royal  charter  which  Connecticut  hoped  to 
obtain.  Two  letters  from  Leete  to  Winthrop,  found 
among  the  Winthrop  papers  enclosed  in  a  slip  of 
paper  which  was  indorsed  "Mr.  Leete's  letter  about 
procuring  patent,"  still  more  clearly  prove  that  Leete 
desired  the  comprehension  of  New  Haven,  and  that  he 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A    CHARTER,         457 

desired  it  in  order  to  secure  her  safety  from  danger 
impending  on  account  of  the  regicides.  The  first  of 
the  letters  is  doubtless  that  which  Connecticut  refers 
to  in  her  answer  to  New  Haven's  Case  Stated.'  A 
few  words  in  this  letter  are  italicised  for  the  conven- 
ience of  the  reader.  Under  date  of  Aug.  6,  1 661,  he 
writes,  — 

"  To  the  Right  Worshipful  John  Winthrop,  Esq, 

"  Honored  Sir,  —  I  waited  with  expectation  to  have  seen  you 
at  Guilford,  or  met  you  at  New  Haven,  to  have  presented  you  with 
something  I  had  prepared,  petition-wise,  for  the  king ;  that,  if  you 
had  pleased,  we  might  have  had  your  furtherance  about  it;  but 
not  meeting  you,  I  went  toward  New  London,  thinking  to  find  you 
there ;  but  when  I  came  at  Saybrook  I  heard  of  your  being  gone 
near  a  week  before,  and  so  I  was  wholly  disappointed:  since 
which  time  I  have  sent  it  to  the  Council  at  Boston,  as  also  a  letter 
of  our  General  Court,  signifying  our  accord  to  own  their  address, 
and  to  acknowledge  ourselves  in  like  relation  and  with  like  affec- 
tion to  his  Majesty.*  All  which  I  suppose  we  should  have  done 
by  you,  could  we  have  seen  you  and  yours,'  and  had  your  consent ; 
for  we  are  desirous  ever  to  maintain  the  stamp  of  the  United 
Colonies  ;  but  seeing  we  were  disappointed,  we  were  necessitated 
to  apply  ourselves  to  the  Bay,  and  are  now  thither  sending  this 
enclosed  letter  and  petition ;  yet,  lest  any  miscarrying  or  interrup- 
tion there  should  fall  out  as  from  them,  and  for  fuller  testimony  of 
us  and  our  loyalty  tp  his  Majesty,  I  have  sent  .  .  .  {nonnulla 
desunt)  ,  ,  ,  and  hope  it  shall  not  meet  with  a  check  from  his 

'  Since  writing  the  above  I  have  noticed  that  Leete  in  a  letter  to  Win- 
throp,  which  may  be  found  on  p-yyji^  alludes  to  a  letter  of  similar  import 
with  that  here  given,  which  he  wrote  when  Winthrop  was  in  England. 
According  to  Leete,  the  purport  of  the  letter  to  England  was  "  to  make 
your  patent  a  covert,  but  no  control  to  our  jurisdiction,  until  we  accorded 
with  mutual  satisfaction  to  become  one." 

*  This  letter  may  be  found  on  p.  ^  'i  %* , 

*  Fitz  John  and  Waitstill,  sons  of  Winthrop,  accompanied  their  father 
to  Europe. 


458  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Majesty.  If  it  should,  it  would  grieve  me,  but  if  it  find  favor,  and 
herein  his  Majesty^s  clemency  shall  further  shine  as  toward  such 
despised  ones,  it  will  bring  forth  (I  believe)  great  cheering  and 
cordialness,  with  growth  of  loyalty ;  which  I  shall  seek  to  further 
as  I  shall  be  in  capacity.  Good  sir,  mind  us,  and  with  first  oppor- 
tunities please  to  deal  upon  our  account.  I  have  written  to  the 
Bay,  that  some  apt  personage  may  be  procured  to  be  the  common 
agent  for  New  England,  to  wait  upon  all  turns  when  any  thing  pro 
or  con  should  be  on  hand  about  New  England  affairs,  which  I  am 
informed  they  think  needful  also.  I  wish  that  you  and  we  could 
procure  one  patent  to  reach  beyond  Delaware^  where  we  have 
expended  a  thousand  pounds  to  procure  Indian  title,  view,  and 
begin  to  possess.  If  war  should  arise  between  Holland  and 
England,  it  niight  suit  the  king's  interest ;  a  little  assistance  might 
so  reduce  all  to  England.  But  our  chief  aim  is  to  purchase  our 
own  peace,  which  I  desire  we  all  pursue,  as  I  hope  you  will,  and 
for  which  we  pray,  as  for  your  health,  success,  and  welfare.  With 
chief  est  respects  to  yourself,  Mr.  Fitz,  and  Mr.  Wait,  wishing  your 
safe  and  speedy  return  to  your  good  family,  and  us  that  long  for  it, 
resting 

"  Yours  cordially  to  love  and  honor  you, 

"William  Leetb. 

"  Guilford,  Aug.  6  (61). 

"  Pray,  Sir,  give  us  a  word  of  intelligence  how  matters  go, 
timely,  as  may  concern  us. 

"  If  any  thing  be  needful  as  to  form  or  emendation  in  writing, 
good  Sir,  let  it  be  done,  and  we  shall  recompense  it." 

The  other  letter,  enclosed  with  this  by  Winthrop  for 
preservation,  was  written  after  Winthrop's  return  from 
Europe.  It  bears  date  June  25,  1663,  and  is  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  J^or  the  honored  John   Winthrop,  Esquire,  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut Colony,  these  dd, 

"Much  Honored  and  Dear  Sir,  —  By  this  first  opportunity, 
with  or  indeed  somewhat  before  my  meet  capacity  to  write,  by  rea- 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A   CHARTER.         459 

son  of  extraordinary  pain  in  the  one  side  of  my  face  and  teeth,  I 
have  adventured  to  perform  that  duty  to  congratulate  your  so  safe 
return,  which  hath  so  long  been  sought,  waited,  and  hoped  for,  as 
the  medium  to  bring  a  comfortable  issue  to  our  perturbing  exer- 
cises, always  giving  out  my  confident  apprehensions  of  your  acting 
in  the  Patent  business  so  as  to  promote  peace  and  love  to  mutual  ' 
satisfaction,  without  any  intendment  to  infringe  our  liberty  or 
privileges  in  the  least  thereby,  when  you  came  to  manifest  your 
ingenuous  sense  of  things ;  and  therefore  all  my  labgring  with  our 
neighbors  of  Connecticut  hath  been  for  a  respite  of  all  things  till 
your  return,  and  that  no  preparations  might  be  given  in  that 
interim,  to  hinder  a  loving  accord  and  compliance  between  us,  which 
truly  I  am  and  ever  have  been  a  friend  to  encourage,  according  as 
I  have  said,  or  at  any  time  written  to  yourself  or  Mr.  Stone.  But 
I  fear  some  physicians  of  our  time  may  be  too  highly  conceited  of 
curing  diseases  by  violent  fomentations,  which  I  ever  judged  not 
to  be  your  method,  but  rather  by  gradual  ripening  and  softening 
supplements,  which  I  am  yet  more  confirmed  to  believe  since 
I  see  your  letter  unto  Major  Mason,  a  copy  whereof  Major 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Scott  sent  enclosed  (as  they  say)  in  one  from 
them,  all  which  letters  have  been  opened  and  tossed  up  and  down 
about  the  country  in  reports,  before  they  came  to  my  view,  which 
is  even  now  done,  and  so  if  any  inconvenience  be  thereby  occa- 
sioned, I  hope  you  will  not  impute  it  unto  me.  But  truly  I  hear 
of  great  irritations  of  spirits  amongst  our  people,  by  reports  of 
opposite  speeches  or  writings,  that  are  said  to  come  from  yourself; 
but  I  hope  all  will  come  to  a  fair  reconcilement  in  due  time,  and 
which  I  still  wait  and  long  for.  Thus  hoping  you  will  pardon  the 
want  of  more  ample  expressions  or  other  attendance  upon  you  in 
time  of  my  long  continuing  illness,  with  all  humble  and  best  respects 
presented  to  yourself,  good  Mrs.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Fitz  John,  Mr. 
Wait,  and  all  yours,  I  take  leave,  resting 

"Your  assured  loving  friend  to  serve, 

"William  Leete. 

"  Guilford,  June  25,  (63)." 

These  overtures  by  Mr.  Leete  toward  an  union  with 
Connecticut  were  very  obnoxious  to  those  who,  regard- 


460  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

ing  the  limitation  of  suffrage  to  church-members  as 
of  paramount  importance,  were  less  alarmed  than  Mr. 
Leete  for  the  safety  of  themselves  and  of  the  colony. 
Mr.  Davenport  writes  \o  Winthrop,  June  22,  1663  :  "As 
for  what  Mr.  Leete  wrote  to  yourself,  it  was  his  private 
doing,  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  any  of  us 
in  this  colony  ;  it  was  not  done  by  him  according  to  his 
pubhc  trust  as  governor,  but  contrary  to  it."  Probably 
this  movement  of  Leete  for  union  with  Connecticut 
was  what  the  letters  of  Hooke  to  Davenport  and  of 
Newman  to  Gilbert,  cited  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
refer  to.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  public  attack 
was  made  upon  him;  but  the  little  apologetic  speech 
with  which  he  opened  the  court  of  election  in  the  spring, 
of  1662  indicates  that  those  who  thought  that  his 
proposal  to  Winthrop  to  include  New  Haven  was  not 
done  by  him  according  to  his  public  trust  as  governor, 
but  contrary  to  it,  had  in  a  private  way  made  it  warm 
for  him.  "The  governor  declared  that  through  the 
goodness  of  God  they  had  been  carried  through  another 
year,  though  with  much  infirmity  and  weakness,  and 
himself  more  than  ordinary,  yet  not  so  but  through 
reflection  God  had  brought  him  to  the  sight  of  it,  but 
yet  was  free  to  be  responsible  for  any  public  transac- 
tion, and  should  be  ready  to  give  answer  to  any  brother 
or  brethren  coming  to  him  in  an  orderly  way,  desiring 
to  find  pardon  and  acceptance  with  God,  and  acknowl- 
edging their  patience  and  love  in  passing  by  any  thing 
that  hath  been  done  amiss.  None  objecting,  they 
proceeded  to  vote." 

The  charter  bore  the  date,  April  23,  1662.     It  was 
first  made  public  in  this  country  at  the  meeting  of  the 


CONNECTICUT  PROCURES  A    CHARTER.         461 

commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies  at  Boston  in 
September.  A  letter  from  the  General  Court  of  Con- 
necticut to  the  commissioners,  dated  Aug.  30,  makes 
no  reference  to  the  charter,  but  proposes  a  special  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  "  in  case  any  matters  needful 
to  be  considered  should,  at  the  return  of  our  worthy 
governor  and  the  agents  for  the  Massachusetts,  be 
presented."  A  letter  sent  by  the  commissioners  dur- 
ing their  session,  to  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island  says, 
"We  have  read  and  perused  a  charter  of  incorpora- 
tion under  the  broad  seal  of  England,  sent  over  the 
last  shipy  granted  to  some  gentlemen  of  Connecticut." 
For  some  time  after  the  charter  had  come  into  his 
possession,  Winthrop  expected  to  return  home  that 
summer,  and  be  himself  the  bearer  of  the  document ; 
but,  changing  his  plans,  and  deciding  to  spend  a  sec- 
ond winter  abroad,  he  had  sent  it  by  another  hand. 
The  arrival  of  the  charter,  therefore,  preceded  the  re- 
turn of  the  envoy  by  whom  it  was  procured.  It  was 
read  at  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  who  "  took 
notice  of  his  majesty's  favor  as  being  very  accept- 
able to  them,  and  advised  that  wherein  others  may 
be  concerned,  the  said  gentlemen  with  such  others  do 
attend  such  ways  as  may  conduce  to  righteousness, 
peace,  and  amity,  and  that  the  favor  showed  to  the 
said  colony,  or  any  other,  may  be  jointly  improved  for 
the  benefit  of  all  concerned  in  the  said  charter."  In 
the  margin  of  that  copy  of  the  records  of  the  commis- 
sioners printed  in  Hazard's  State  Papers  is  the  follow- 
ing note  :  "  We  cannot  as  yet  say  that  the  procurement 
of  this  patent  will  be  acceptable  to  us  or  our  colony. 
—  William  Leete,  Benjamin  Fenn." 


462  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

At  the  General  Assembly  or  Court  of  Election  held 
at  Hartford,  Oct.  9,  1662,  — 

"The  Patent  or  Charter  was  this  day  publicly  read  in 
audience  of  the  freemen,  and  declared  to  belong  to  them  and  their 
successors;  and  the  freemen  made  choice  of  Mr.  Wyllys,  Capt. 
John  Talcott,  and  Lieut.  John  AUyn,  to  take  the  charter  into 
their  custody  in  behalf  of  the  freemen,  who  are  to  have  an  oath 
administered  to  them  by  the  General  Assembly  for  the  due  dis- 
charge of  the  trust  committed  to  them." 


CHAPTER  XX. 

CONTROVERSY  WITH   CONNECTICUTV 

AT  the  session  of  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut 
at  which  the  charter  was  received,  Capt.  John 
Youngs  of  Southold  appeared,  and  presented  the  fol- 
lowing certificate,  signed  by  thirty-two  persons :  — 

"  Southold,  Oct  4,  1663. 

"  Having  notice  from  Mr.  Wyllys  of  Connecticut  Jurisdiction, 
Long  Island  comes  within  the  patent,  and  also  that  the  Court  is  to 
be  held  at  Hartford,  and  thither  we  are  desired  by  Mr.  Wyllys  to 
send  our  deputies,  from  these  towns  of  Long  Island ;  we  therefore 
of  Southold,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  do  desire  and  have 
appointed  Capt.  John  Youngs  to  be  our  deputy,  and  do  hereby 
give  him  full  power  to  speak  and  act  in  our  behalf  as  occasion 
shall  serve." 

Upon  this  certificate  Capt.  Youngs  was  admitted  to 
sit  as  the  deputy  of  Southold,  and  the  following  min- 
ute was  entered  on  the  record  :  — 

"  This  Court  being  informed  by  Capt.  John  Youngs  and  some 
other  gentlemen  of  quality,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Southold,  the 
major  part  of  them,  have  sent  up  and  empowered  him  to  act  as 
their  deputy,  and  he  as  their  agent  tending  to  submit  their  persons 
and  estates  unto  this  government  according  to  our  Charter ;  this 
Court  doth  own  and  accept  them,  and  shall  be  ready  to  afford 

463 


464  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

them  protection  as  occasion  shall  require,  and  do  advise  the  said 
inhabitants  to  repair  to  South  and  East  Hampton,  to  the  authority 
there  settled  by  this  Court,  in  case  of  any  necessary  occasion,  to 
require  the  assistance  of  authority.  And  this  Court  doth  hereby 
accept  and  declare  Capt  John  Youngs  to  be  a  freeman  of  this 
corporation,  and  do  grant  him  commission  to  act  in  the  plantation 
of  Southold  as  need  requires,  according  to  his  commission.  And 
this  Court  doth  order  the  inhabitants  of  Southold  to  meet  together, 
to  choose  a  constable  for  that  town ;  and  Capt.  John  Youngs  is 
authorized  to  administer  oath  to  the  said  constable,  for  the  due 
execution  of  his  office.  And  we  do  advise  and  order  Capt.  Youngs 
to  see  that  the  minister  be  duly  paid  his  meet  and  competent 
maintenance.'*  1 

When  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut  agreed,  before 
the  departure  of  Winthrop  for  Europe,  that  if  it  should 
be  found  that  their  boundary  included  New  Haven, 
their  brethren  of  that  colony  should  be  at  liberty  to 
unite  with  them  or  not  at  their  option,  they  had  no 
thought  of  such  a  temptation  as  beset  them  when 
Southold  applied  to  be  received  under  their  jurisdic- 
tion. They  were  tempted  to  divide  and  conquer  when 
they  ought  in  fairness  and  good  faith,  by  postponing 
action  on  the  proposal  of  the  Southold  people,  to  have 
shown  courtesy  to  a  sister  colony  with  which  they 
were  confederate.  The  signers  of  the  application  were 
probably,  as  Capt.  Youngs  alleged,  a  major  part  of  the 
freemen  of  Southold ;  but  they  were  under  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  New  Haven,  and  in  revolting  to  Connecticut 
were  acting  as  individuals  and  not  in  a  court  of  the 
plantation.  Connecticut,  after  acknowledging  New 
Haven  as  a  sister  colony  and  becoming  confederate 
with  it,  could  not  justly  receive  one  of  its  plantations, 
even  if  a  general  court  of  the  plantation  had  voted  to 


F 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  465 

change  its  allegiance.     If  possible,  it  was  a  still  greater 
outrage  to  do  it  in  the  absence  of  municipal  action. 

Having  thus  robbed  New  Haven  of  Southold,  the 
same  General  Court  proceeded  to  take  under  the  gov- 
ernment and  protection  of  Connecticut  a  few  dis- 
affected persons  in  Guilford,  without  even  pretending 
that  they  were  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants  or  of  the 
freemen.     The  record  reads,  — 

"  Several  inhabitants  of  Guilford  tendering  themselves,  their 
persons  and  estates,  under  the  government  and  protection  of  this 
colony,  this  Court  doth  declare  that  they  do  accept  and  own  them 
as  members  of  this  colony,  and  shall  be  ready  to  a£Eord  what  pro- 
tection is  necessary.  And  this  Court  doth  advise  the  said  persons 
to  carry  peaceably  and  religiously  in  their  places  toward  the  rest 
of  the  inhabitants  that  yet  have  not  submitted  in  like  manner. 
And  also  to  pay  their  just  dues  unto  the  minister  of  their  town ; 
and  also  all  public  charges  due  to  this  day." 

In  like  manner  Stamford  and  Greenwich  were  re- 
ceived. "  This  Court  doth  hereby  declare  their  accept- 
ance of  the  plantations  of  Stamford  and  Greenwich 
under  this  government  upon  the  same  terms  and  pro- 
visions as  are  directed  and  declared  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Guilford  ;  and  that  each  of  those  plantations  have 
a  constable  chosen  and  sworn." 

As  no  disaffected  inhabitants  of  New  Haven,  Milford, 
or  Branford  appeared,  no  action  was  attempted  for  com- 
prehending those  plantations  further  than  to  appoint 
Mr.  Matthew  Allyn,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Stone,  and  Mr. 
Hooker  a  committee  "to  go  down  to  New  Haven  to 
treat  with  the  gentlemen  and  others  of  our  loving 
friends  there,  according  to  such  instructions  as  shall  be 
directed  to  the  said  committee  by  this  Court.** 


466  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

About  a  week  later  a  court  of  magistrates  was  held 
at  New  Haven,  at  which  the  governor,  the  deputy-gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Jones,  Mr.  Fenn,  Mr.  Treat,  and  Mr.  Crane 
were  present.  The  committee  from  Connecticut,  arriv- 
ing  in  New  Haven  while  the  magistrates  were  in 
session,  presented  a  copy  of  the  charter,  and  with  it  the 
written  declaration  which  may  be  found  below,  to  the 
intent  that  Connecticut  desired  • "  a  happy  and  com- 
fortable union." 

In  the  record  of  their  proceedings  the  magistrates 
make  no  express  mention  of  the  committee  or  of  their 
documents ;  but  "  it  was  agreed  and  ordered  that  the 
twenty-ninth  day  of  this  month  be  kept  a  day  of  ex- 
traordinary seeking  of  God  by  fasting  and  prayer  for 
his  guidance  of  the  colony  in  this  weighty  business 
about  joining  with  Connecticut  colony,  and  for  the 
afflicted  state  of  the  church  and  people  of  God  in  our 
native  country,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  world."  But 
though  no  mention  is  made  in  the  record  of  the  court 
of  magistrates,  of  the  documents  received  from  Con- 
necticut, it  subsequently  appears  that  the  magistrates 
and  elders  returned  a  written  reply. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  freemen  of  New  Haven  colony, 
held  at  New  Haven^  Nov.  4,  1662,  the  governor  in- 
formed them  they  were  not  ignorant  of  the  occasion  of 
this  meeting,  they  knowing  that  some  gentlemen  of 
Connecticut  had  been  here,  and  had  left  a  copy  of  their 
patent,  and  another  writing  under  their  hands,  both  of 
which  were  now  read,  and  also  the  answer  of  our  com- 
mHtee  to  their  writing,  which  writing  and  answer  are 
as  f oUoweth  :  — 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT,  467 

"  To  our  Much  Honored  and  Reverend  Friends  of  New  Haven, 
Milfordy  &*€.,  to  be  communicated  to  all  whom  it  may  con- 
cern :  — 

"We  declare  that  through  the  good  providence  of  the  Most 
High,  a  large  and  ample  patent  and  therein  desirable  privileges 
and  immunities  from  his  Majesty,  being  come  to  our  hands  (a 
copy  whereof  we  have  left  with  you  to  be  considered),  and  your- 
selves upon  the  sea-coast  being  included  and  interested  therein, 
the  king  having  united  us  in  one  body  politic,  we  according  to  the 
commission  wherewith  we  are  intrusted  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  Connecticut  do  declare  in  their  name  that  it  is  both  their  and 
our  earnest  desire  that  there  may  be  a  happy  and  comfortable 
union  between  yourselves  and  us,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the 
charter,  that  inconveniences  and  dangers  may  be  prevented,  and 
peace  and  truth  strengthened  and  established,  through  our  suita- 
ble subjection  to  the  terms  of  the  patent,  and  the  good  blessing  of 
God  upon  us  therein.    We  do  desire  a  seasonable  return  hereunto. 

"Matthew  Allyn, 
Samuel  Wyllys, 
Samuel  Stone, 
Samuel  Hooker, 
Joseph  Fitch." 

"  To  our  Much  Honored  and  Reverend  Friends,  the  Commissioners 
from  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut,  to  be  communicated,  &*c, 

"Much  Honored  and  Reverend,  —  We  have  received  and 
perused  your  writing,  and  heard  the  copy  read  of  his  Majesty's 
letters  patent  to  Connecticut  colony,  wherein  though  we  do  not 
find  the  colony  of  New  Haven  expressly  included,  yet  to  show  our 
desire  that  matters  may  be  issued  in  the  conserving  of  peace  and 
amity  with  righteousness  between  them  and  us,  we  shall  commu- 
nicate your  writing  and  the  copy  of  the  patent  to  our  freemen, 
and  afterwards  with  convenient  speed  return  their  answer.  Only 
we  desire  that  the  issuing  of  matters  may  be  respited  until  we  may 
receive  fuller  information  from  the  Honored  Mr.  Winthrop  or 
satisfaction  otherwise,  and  that  in  the  mean  time  this  colony  may 
remain  distinct,  entire,  and  uninterrupted,  as  heretofore,  which  we 


468  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

hope  you  will  see  cause  lo\nngly  to  consent  unto,  and  signify  the 

same  to  us  with  convenient  speed. 

"WnxiAM  Leete, 
Matthew  Gilbert, 
Benjamin  Fenn% 
Jasper  Crane, 
Robert  Treat, 
Wm.  Jones, 
John  Davenport, 
Nicholas  Street, 
Abrah.  Pierson, 
Roger  Newton. 


«  V 


New  Haven,  17th  of  October,  1662/' 

"  Then  the  governor  told  them  that  they  had  heard 
the  writings  and  patent,  and  there  were  two  things  in 
their  writing  to  be  answered  to  :  first,  that  they  declare 
us  to  be,  by  the  king,  made  one  body  politic  with  them, 
and  interested  in  their  patent ;  second,  they  desire  a 
happy  and  comfortable  union  for  peace  and  truth's  sake, 
&c.:  now  to  these  two  you  must  give  answer ;  and  then 
dismissed  the  assembly  to  consider  of  it  for  the  space  of 
one  hour  and  a  half,  and  then  to  meet  again  at  the  beat 
of  the  drum. 

"Then,  the  company  being  come  together  in  the 
afternoon,  the  governor  told  them  that  they  knew  what 
was  left  with  them,  for  they  had  heard  the  patent  and 
the  writings  read ;  therefore  he  desired  to  know  their 
minds,  for  he  hoped  they  might  have  some  help  from 
among  ourselves,  mentioning  Mr.  Davenport. 

**Then  Mr.  Davenport,  pastor  of  the  church  of  Christ 
at  New  Haven,  said  that  according  to  this  occasion  he 
should  discharge  the  duty  of  his  place,  and  should  read 
to  them  his  own  thoughts  (which  he  had  set  down  in 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  469 

writing),  which  he  desired  might  remain  his  own  till 
they  were  fully  satisfied  in  them,  and  further  said  he 
should  leave  others  to  walk  according  to  the  light  that 
God  should  give  them  in  this  business ;  and  so  read 
some  reasons  why  we  were  not  included  in  the  patent, 
and  also  why  we  might  not  voluntarily  join  with  them, 
and  so,  upon  desire  of  some,  left  his  writing  with  them 
to  consider  of. 

"  Then  the  governor  told  them  that  they  had  heard 
the  thoughts  of  Mr.  Davenport  concerning  both  the 
parts  of  the  writing,  and  [he]  had  left  them  with  them 
that  they  might  do  that  which  may  be  to  God's  accept- 
ance ;  therefore  he  desired  them  to  speak  their  minds 
freely,  for  he  desired  that  the  freemen  themselves  would 
give  the  substance  of  the  answer  voluntarily.  The 
governor  further  said  that  for  his  part  he  should  not  be 
forward  to  lead  them  in  this  case,  lest  any  should  think 
him  ambitious  of  the  place,  but  desired  that  that  might 
be  done  which  is  according  to  the  will  of  God.  Then, 
the  matter  being  largely  debated,  at  last  came  to  this 
conclusion,  to  have  an  answer  drawn  up  out  of  these 
three  heads :  first,  that  there  be  due  witness-bearing 
against  their  sin ;  secondly,  that  there  may  be  a  defer- 
ring of  things  till  Mr.  Winthrop's  coming  or  we  [have] 
satisfaction  otherwise,  and  that  we  remain  in  the  same 
state  as  we  are  till  then  ;  thirdly,  that  we  can  do  noth- 
ing till  we  consult  with  the  other  confederates. 

"Then  the  advice  of  the  commissioners  about  this 
patent  was  read,  and  considered  how  contrary  to  that 
righteousness,  amity,  and  peace,  our  neighbors  of  Con- 
necticut had  carried  toward  us.  Then  they  considered 
of  a  committee  to  draw  up  an  answer  into  form,  and  to 


470  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

annex  some  weighty  arguments  thereunto,  to  send  to 
the  general  assembly  of  Connecticut,  and  considered 
also  about  making  address  to  his  Majesty  if  our  answer 
prevail  not.  The  committee  appointed  was  the  magis- 
trates and  elders  of  this  colony  in  general,  with  Brother 
Law  of  Stamford,  and  these  to  conclude  according  to 
the  major  part  of  them  in  session.  It  was  left  with 
this  committee  to  send  this  answer,  &c.,  to  what  person 
they  see  most  convenient,  to  be  communicated  to  their 
general  assembly. 

"The  freemen  expressed  themselves  desirous  that  the 
magistrates  would  go  on  in  their  work,  and  they  looked 
upon  themselves  bound  to  stand  by  them  according  to 
our  laws  here  established." 

"  The  answer  of  the  freemen  drawn  up  into  form  by 
the  committee,  and  sent  to  Connecticut  General  As- 
sembly, is  as  foUoweth  :  viz.,  — 

"Honored  Gentlemen, — We  have  heard  both  the  patent  and 
the  writing  read,  which  those  gentlemen  (who  said  they  were  sent 
from  your  General  Assembly)  left  with  our  committee,  and  have 
considered  the  contents  according  to  our  capacities.  By  the  one 
we  take  notice  of  their  declared  sense  of  the  patent  and  also  of 
your  desire  of  our  uniting  with  yourselves  upon  that  account.  By 
the  other  we  understand  that  his  Majesty  hath  been  graciously 
pleased  (at  your  earnest  petition)  to  grant  liberty  to  the  colony  of 
Connecticut  to  acquire,  have,  possess,  and  purchase,  &c.,  whatever 
lands,  &c.,  you  have  gained  or  shall  gain  by  lawful  means  within 
the  precincts  or  lines  therein  mentioned,  and  also  of  his  abundant 
grace  to  allow  and  establish  you  to  be  one  body  politic,  for  man- 
aging all  your  public  affairs  and  government  in  a  religious  and 
peaceable  manner,  to  the  intents  and  purposes  by  his  Majesty 
and  the  adventurers  therein  professed,  over  all  persons,  matters, 
and  things,  so  gained  by  purchase  or  conquest,  at  your  own  proper 
costs  and   charges,  according  as  yourselves  informed  you  had 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT.  47 1 

already  done.  Now,  whatever  is  so  yours,  we  have  neither  pur- 
pose nor  desire  to  oppose,  hurt,  or  hinder  in  the  least ;  but  what 
ourselves  (by  like  lawful  means)  have  attained,  as  to  inheritances 
or  jurisdiction  as  a  distinct  colony,  upon  our  most  solemn  and 
religious  covenants,  so  well  known  to  his  Majesty  and  to  all,  we 
must  say  that  we  do  not  find  in  the  patent  any  command  given  to 
you  nor  prohibition  [permission  ?]  to  us  to  dissolve  covenants  or 
alter  the  orderly  settlements  of  New  England,  nor  any  sufficient 
reason  why  we  may  not  so  remain  to  be  as  formerly.  Also,  your 
beginning  to  procure  and  proceeding  to  improve  the  patent  with- 
out us  doth  confirm  this  belief ;  but  rather  it  seems  that  a  way 
is  left  open  to  us  to  petition  for  the  like  favor,  and  to  enter  our 
appeal  from  your  declared  sense  of  the  patent  and  signify  our 
grievances.  Yet  if  it  shall  appear  (after  a  due  and  full  information 
of  our  state)  to  have  been  his  Majesty's  pleasure  so  to  unite  us  as 
you  understand  the  patent,  we  must  submit  according  to  God ;  but 
for  the  present  we  cannot  answer  otherwise  than  our  committee 
hath  done,  and  likewise  to  make  the  same  request  unto  you,  that 
we  may  remain  distinct  as  formerly,  and  may  be  succored  by  you 
as  confederates,  at  least  that  none  occasion  be  given  by  yourselves 
for  any  to  disturb  us  in  our  ancient  settlements  until  that  either  by 
the  Honored  Mr.  Winthrop,  by  our  other  confederates,  or  from  his 
Majesty,  we  may  be  resolved  herein.  All  which  means  are  in  our 
thojLights  to  use,  except  you  prevent,  for  the  gaining  of  a  right 
understanding,  and  to  bring  a  peaceable  issue  or  reconcilement  of 
this  matter ;  and  we  wish  you  had  better  considered  than  to  act  so 
suddenly  to  seclude  us  from  patent  privilege  at  first  if  we  are 
included  as  you  say,  and  to  have  so  proceeded  since,  as  may  seem 
to  give  advantage  unto  disaffected  persons  to  slight  or  disregard 
oaths  and  covenants,  and  thereby  to  rend  and  make  division, 
manage  contention  and  troubles  in  the  townships  and  societies  of 
this  colony,  and  that  about  religious  worship,  as  the  enclosed 
complaint  may  declare,  which  seems  to  us  a  great  scandal  to  reli- 
gion before  the  natives,  and  prejudicial  to  his  Majesty's  pious 
intention,  as  also  to  hold  forth  a  series  of  means  very  opposite  to 
the  end  pretended,  and  very  much  obscured  from  the  beauty  of 
such  a  religious  and  peaceable  walking  amongst  English  brethren, 
as  may  either  invite  the  natives  to  the  Christian  faith,  or  unite  our 


472  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

0 

spirits  in  this  juncture,  and  this  occasion  given  before  any  convic- 
tion tendered  or  publication  of  the  patent  amongst  us,  or  so  much 
as  a  treaty  with  us  in  a  Christian,  neighborly  way ;  no  pretence  for 
our  dissolution  of  government  till  then  could  rationally  be    ima- 
gined.   Such  carriage  may  seem  to  be  against  the  advice  and  mind 
of  his  Majesty  in  the  patent,  as  also  of  your  honored  governor, 
and  to  cast  reflection  upon  him,  when  we  compare  these  things 
with  his  letters  to  some  here ;  for  the  avoiding  whereof  we  ear- 
nestly request  that  the  whole  of  what  he  hath  written  to  your- 
selves, so  far  as  it  may  respect  us  in  this  business,  may  be  fully 
communicated  to  our  view  in  a  true  copy  or  transcript  of  the  same. 
We  must  profess  ourselves  grieved  hereat,  and  must  desire  and 
expect  your  effectual  endeavors   to  repair  these  breaches   and 
restore  us  to  our  former  condition  as  confederates,  un^l  that  by  all 
or  some  of  these  ways  intimated  we  may  attain  a  clear  resolution 
in  this  matter.     Unto  what  we  have  herein  propounded  we  shall 
add  that  we  do  not  in  the  least  intend  any  dislike  to  his  Majest^-'s 
act,  but  to  show  our  sense  of  your  actings  first  and  last,  so  much 
to  our  detriment,  and  to  manifest  the  consequent  effects  to  God's 
dishonor,  as  also  to  give  you  to  know  how  we  understand  the 
patent,  hoping  that  you  will  both  candidly  construe  and  friendly 
comply  with  our  desires  herein,  and  so  remove  the  cause  of  our 
distraction  and  sad  affliction  that  you  have  brought  upon  this  |X)or 
colony :  then  shall  we  forbear  to  give  you  further  trouble,  and  shall 
pray  to  the  God  of  spirits  to  grant  us  all  humility,  and  to  guide  us 
with  his  heavenly  wisdom  to  a  happy  issue  of  this  affair  in  love 
and  peace :  resting,  gentlemen,  your  very  loving  friends  and  neigh- 
bors, the  freemen  of  the  Colony  of  New  Haven. 

''W  James  Bishop,  Secretary^ 
**  In  the  name  and  by  order  and  consent  of  the  Committee 
and  freemen  of  New  Haven  Colony, 

^^  Postscript,  —  We  have  also  thought  fit  to  send  our  reasons  en- 
closed, which  are  the  ground  of  this  answer  we  return,  and  desire 
the  whole  may  be  read  and  communicated  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, entreating  an  answer  with  all  convenient  speed,  or  from  the 
committee  if  so  empowered." 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  473 

Four  days  previous  to  this  Court  of  the  Jurisdiction, 
there  had  been  a  general  plantation  court  at  New 
Haven,  when,  after  Deputy-Gov.  Gilbert  had  read  the 
charter,  the  written  declaration  of  the  committee  from 
Connecticut,  and  the  reply  of  the  magistrates  and 
elders,  "  Mr.  John  Davenport,  pastor  of  the  church  of 
Christ  at  New  Haven,  declared  unto  the  town  that  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  before  he  went  to  England,  not 
to  have  any  hand  in  such  an  unrighteous  act  as  to 
involve  us  in  their  patent.  To  which  he  wrote  to  him 
in  two  letters,  one  from  Mattabesick  and  another  from 
the  Manhatoes  at  his  going  away,  part  of  which  was 
read,  wherein  he  expressed  his  contrary  purpose  and 
the  expressions  of  some  other  of  their  magistrates  to 
the  same  purpose.  And  also  Mr.  Davenport  presented 
a  letter,  which  he  received  the  last  night  from  Mr. 
Richard  Law  of  Stamford,  and  read  it  to  the  town, 
wherein  was  intimated  their  sad  state  by  reason  of  the 
turbulent  carriages  of  some  of  their  inhabitants  which 
Connecticut  colony  had  admitted  and  so  dismembered 
us,  and  some  would  say  they  were  rebels  against  the 
king  and  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut.  Also  he 
further  informed  the  town  of  the  treaty  they  had  with 
those  gentlemen  of  Connecticut  aforesaid,  and  how 
they  had  showed  them  the  wrong  they  had  done  us,  in 
dismembering  of  us  at  Stamford,  Guilford,  and  South- 
old,  and  all  this  before  they  had  consulted  with  us, 
and  showed  them  their  evil  therein,  but  received  no 
satisfaction  from  them  about  it. 

"  Mr.  Davenport  also  propounded  sundry  reasons  to 
be  considered,  both  why  we  were  not  included  in  Con- 
necticut patent,  and  also  why  we  may  not  voluntarily 


474  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

join  with  them,  with  some  directions  what  answer  to  re- 
turn, that  so  they  may  see  their  evil  in  what  they  have 
done,  and  restore  us  to  our  former  state,  that  so  we  and 
they  may  live  together  in  unity  and  amity  for  the  future. 

"  The  Deputy-Governor  declared  that  the  things 
spoken  by  Mr.  Davenport  were  of  great  weight,  and  he 
desired  all  present  would  seriously  consider  of  them. 

"  Mr.  Street,  teacher  of  the  church  of  Christ  at  New 
Haven,  declared  that  he  looked  upon  the  reasons  pro- 
pounded by  Mr.  Davenport  to  be  imanswerable,  and 
that  both  church  and  town  had  cause  to  bless  God  for 
the  wisdom  held  forth  in  them,  and  wished  them  to 
keep  the  ends  and  rules  of  Christ  in  their  eye,  and  then 
God  would  stand  by  them ;  and  did  second  the  direc- 
tions given,  with  one  Scripture  out  of  Isa.  xiv.  32,  and 
from  thence  did  advise  that  our  answers  should  be  of 
faith  and  influenced  with  faith,  and  not  of  fear. 

"The  matter  was  largely  debated,  and  sundry  ex- 
pressed themselves  as  disliking  the  proceedings  of  Con- 
necticut in  this  business,  as  Lieut.  Nash,  Mr.  Tuttle, 
Mr.  Powell,  &c.,  and  desired  some  answer  might  be 
given  that  way,  with  a  desire  of  restoring  us  to  our 
former  state  again,  and  then  by  general  vote  declared 
their  disapproving  of  the  manner  of  Connecticut  colo- 
ny's proceeding  in  this  business." 

There  being  no  meeting  of  the  General  Court  of 
Connecticut  till  the  following  spring,  and  their  com- 
mittee returning  no  written  reply  to  the  communica- 
tion from  New  Haven,  though,  in  a  personal  inter\'iew 
as  is  intimated  in  New  Haven's  Case  Stated,  they  sig- 
nified their  persistence  in  their  "  own  will  and  way," 
New    Haven    through    its    committee    forwarded    an 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  475 

appeal  to  his  Majesty,  but  advised  their  friends  in 
London  who  served  them  in  the  business,  to  communi- 
cate their  papers  first  to  Winthrop,  that  if  possible  the 
difference  between  the  colonies  might  be  settled  with- 
out further  recourse.  Accordingly  the  papers  were 
shown  to  Winthrop,  and  he  stopped  the  proceeding  of 
the  appeal  to  the  king  by  engaging  that  Connecticut 
should  cease  its  injurious  treatment  of  New  Haven. 
In  fulfilment  of  that  engagement  he  wrote  a  letter 
dated  March  3,  i66§,  to  Major  Mason,  Deputy-Gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  and,  in  the  absence  of  Winthrop, 
its  acting  governor,  to  be  communicated  to  the  other 
magistrates,  which  is  as  follows :  — 

"  Gentlemen,  —  I  am  informed  by  some  gentlemen  who  are 
authorized  to  seek  remedy  here,  that  since  you  had  the  late  patent, 
there  hath  been  injury  done  to  the  government  of  New  Haven, 
and  in  particular  at  Guilford  and  Stamford  in  admitting  several  of 
the  inhabitants  there  unto  freedom  with  you,  and  appointing  offi- 
cers, which  hath  caused  division  in  said  towns,  which  may  prove  of 
dangerous  consequence  if  not  timely  prevented,  though  I  do  hope 
the  rise  of  it  is  from  misunderstanding,  and  not  in  design  of 
prejudice  to  that  colony,  for  whom  I  gave  assurance  to  their 
friends  that  their  rights  and  interests  should  not  be  disquieted  or 
prejudiced  by  the  patent.  But  if  both  governments  would  with 
unanimous  agreement  unite  in  one,  their  friends  judged  it  would 
be  for  advantage  to  both ;  and  further  I  must  let  you  know  that 
testimony  here  doth  affirm  that  I  gave  assurance  before  authority 
here,  that  it  was  not  intended  to  meddle  with  any  town  or  planta- 
tion that  was  settled  under  any  other  government  Had  it  been 
any  otherwise  intended  or  declared,  it  had  been  injurious,  in  taking 
out  the  patent,  not  to  have  inserted  a  proportionable  number  of 
their  names  in  it.  Now  upon  the  whole,  having  had  serious  con- 
ference  with  their  friends  authorized  by  them,  and  with  others  who 
are  friends  to  both,  to  prevent  a  tedious  and  chargeable  trial  and 
uncertain  event  here,  I  promised  them  to  give  you  speedily  this 


476  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

representation,  how  far  you  are  engaged,  if  any  injury  hath  been 
done  by  admitting  of  freemen,  or  appointing  officers,  or  any  other 
unjust  intermeddling  with  New  Haven  Colony  in  one  kind  or  other 
without  the  approbation  of  the  government,  that  it  be  forthwith 
recalled,  and  that  for  future  there  will  be  no  imposing  in  any 
kind  upon  them,  nor  admitting  of  any  members  without  mutual 
consent ;  but  that  all  things  be  acted  as  loving,  neighboring 
colonies,  as  before  such  patent  granted.  And  unto  this  I  judge 
you  are  obliged,  I  having  engaged  to  their  agents  here  that  this 
w^ill  be  by  you  performed,  and  they  have  thereupon  forborne  to  give 
you  or  me  any  trouble.  But  they  do  not  doubt  but  upon  future 
consideration  there  may  be  such  a  right  understanding  between 
both  governments  that  an  union  and  friendly  joining ,^y  be  estab- 
lished to  the  satisfaction  of  all,  which  at  my  arrival  I  shall  also 
endeavor  (God  ^nlling)  to  promote.  Not  having  more  at  present 
in  this  case,  I  rest 

"  Your  humble  servant, 

"John  Winthrop. 

"  For  Major  yohn  Mason,  Deputy^ovemor  of  Contucticut  Colony^ 
and  the  rest  of  the  Court  there  at  Hartford^  dd^^ 

This  letter,  or  a  copy  of  it  in  Winthrop's  handwrit- 
ing, was  by  him  delivered  to  the  agents  of  the  New 
Haven  Colony,  and  by  them  sent  to  Gov.  Leete.  A 
year  after  the  date  thereof,  the  Connecticut  committee 
allege  that  it  had  never  been  seen  by  Major  Mason  or 
themselves,  and  intimate  that  it  was  sent  to  Guilford  to 
be  forwarded  to  Hartford.  Gov.  Leete  evidently  had 
regarded  it  as  a  copy  sent  to  him  to  inform  him  how 
the  negotiation  stood  between  the  agents  who  acted 
for  the  two  colonies  in  London.  Winthrop's  letter  was 
so  satisfactory  to  the  agents  of  New  Haven  (as  is  evi- 
dent from  the  letter  itself)  that  they  did  not  proceed 
with  the  intended  appeal  to  the  king.  When  received 
by  Leete,  it  was  equally  satisfactory  to  the  magistrates 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT,  477 

and  elders  who  were  in  charge  of  New  Haven's  case. 
The  letter,  being  dated  March  3,  reached  New  Haven 
not  many  weeks  before  Winthrop's  arrival  in  June. 

At  a  general  assembly,  held  at  Hartford  in  March, 
i66§,  the  Court  "voted  and  desired  the  deputy-gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Matthew  Allyn,  Capt.  John  Talcott,  and 
Lieut.  John  Allyn,  and  for  a  reserve  to  the  major, 
Mr.  Wyllys,  as  a  committee  to  go  down  to  New  Haven 
to  treat  with  our  honored  and  loving  friends  about 
their  union  and  incorporation  with  this  colony  of  Con- 
necticut. And  in  case  the  committee  cannot  effect  a 
union  according  to  instructions  given  them  by  the 
Court,  that  then  they  endeavor  to  settle  a  peace  in  the 
plantations  until  such  time  as  they  and  we  may  be  in  a 
further  capacity  of  issuing  this  difference,  and  to  act  in 
reference  hereunto  as  they  judge  most  meet."  Another 
order  was  "  that  in  case  the  committee  do  not  issue  an 
agreement  with  New  Haven  gentlemen  according  to 
their  instructions,  before  their  return,  that  then  all 
propositions  and  instructions  from  the  Court,  respect- 
ing union  with  that  people,  are  void  and  of  none 
effect." 

Three  of  this  committee  were  in  New  Haven  a  few 
days  afterward,  where  they  made  the  following  commu- 
nication :  — 

"  Some  Proposals  to  the  Gentlemen  of  New  Haven^  &*c,j  in  refer- 
ence to  their  Firm  Settlement  and  Incorporation  with  us  of 
Connecticut :  — 

"  I.  We  shall  in  no  wise  infringe  or  disturb  them  in  their  order 
of  church  government,  provided  we  remain  free  from  any  imposi- 
tions from  the  supreme  powers  of  England. 

"2.  That  those  who  have  been  of  the  magistracy  in  New 


478  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

Haven  Colony  shall  be  invested  with  full  power  to  govern  the 
people  within  those  limits  until  our  Gener^  Assembly  in  May 
next 

"  3.  That  there  shall  yearly  be  nominated  to  election  a  proper^ 
tionable  number  of  assistants  in  the  plantations  of  New  Haven, 
Milford,  Branford,  and  Guilford,  as  shaU  be  for  the  rest  of  the 
plantations  in  our  colony. 

"  4.  That  those  who  have  been  freemen  of  New  Haven  colony 
shall  be  forthwith  admitted  freemen  of  our  corporation,  unless  any 
person  be  justly  excepted  against  unto  us. 

"  5.  That  New  Haven,  Milford,  Branford,  Guilford,  shaU  be  a 
distinct  county  wherein  there  shall  be  chosen  yearly  such  civil 
officers  as  may  carry  on  all  causes  of  judicature  amongst  them- 
selves which  extend  not  to  life,  limb,  or  banishment. 

"6.  That  there  shall  be,  once  a  year  at  the  least,  a  court  of 
assistants  at  New  Haven  to  prevent  unnecessary  trouble  and 
expense  to  those  that  do  appeal  from  the  sentence  of  the  former 
court,  and  to  hear  and  determine  all  matters  that  respect  life,  limb, 
and  banishment. 

"  7.  That  each  of  the  forementioned  towns  shall  have  liberty 
to  send  two  of  their  freemen  as  deputies  to  our  next  General 
Assembly. 

"  8.  Whatever  privileges  else  you  shall  propound  consonant  to 
the  tenor  of  our  charter,  we  shall  be  ready  to  attend  you  therein. 

**9.  That,  in  case  these  our  proposals  be  not  accepted  before 
our  departure,  then  they  are  to  be  void  and  of  no  effect 

"Math.  Allyn, 
Sam.  Wyllys, 
John  Allyn. 

*'  New  Haven,  March  20,  '6|.*» 

The  answer  of  New  Haven  to  these  proposals,  in  the 
handwriting  of  William  Jones,  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Whereas  we  discern  by  the  order  of  the  General  Court  of 
Connecticut,  dated  March  the  nth,  i66|,  that  the  gendemen  their 
committee  were  limited  to  conclude  at  this  present  meeting  with 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  479 

us,  otherwise  their  power  ceases ;  our  answer  in  general  is  that  we 
are  not  in  a  capacity  so  to  do :  — 

"  I.  First,  because  we  are  under  an  appeal  to  the  king  where- 
unto  i^e  do  adhere,  and  therefore  cannot  act  contrarily  without 
dishonor  to  his  Majesty,  and  prejudice  to  our  own  right  until  his 
royal  determination  be  known  in  the  question  depending  between 
us. 

*'  2.  Because  we  cannot  in  conscience  conclude  to  dissolve  our 
distinct  colony  by  uniting  with  Connecticut  without  the  express 
consent  of  the  other  colonies  declared  from  their  general  courts 
respectively. 

"3.  Because  we  are  limited  by  our  freemen  not  to  conclude 
any  thing  for  altering  our  distinct  colony  state  and  government 
without  their  consent. 

"  Yet  shall  we,  in  order  to  an  issue  betwixt  us  with  love  and 
peace,  which  we  desire  them  by  all  loving  carriages  to  promo ve 
in  the  interim  of  our  deliberation,  consider  of  their  propositions 
and  communicate  them  to  our  freemen,  as  we  may  have  a  conven- 
ient opportunity. 

"  But  whereas  we  observe  in  their  propositions  that  Stamford  is 
left  out,  as  if  it  were  no  member  of  us,  we  must  and  do  profess 
ourselves  unsatisfied  with  that  omission,  because  we  apprehend 
ourselves  bound  to  seek  and  provide  for  their  liberties  and  com- 
forts as  our  own. 

"William  Leete, 
"  In  the  name  of  our  Committee, 
**  New  Haven,  20th  of  ist  mo.  (ff )•" 

On  the  6th  of  May  a  general  court  for  the  jurisdic- 
tion was  held  at  New  Haven,  when  "the  governor 
informed  the  Court  of  the  state  of  things  in  reference 
to  Connecticut,  and  how  the  committee  had  acted ;  and 
the  proposals  of  the  gentlemen  of  Connecticut  were 
read  with  the  answer  of  our  committee. 

"It  was  propounded  whether  we  should  make  any 
alteration  of  the  usual  time  of  our  election,  we  standing 


480  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

in  the  state  we  do  and  waiting  for  an  answer  to  our 
appeal.  After  debate,  it  was  concluded  as  best  to  go 
on  with  our  election  as  formerly,  and  make  no  altera- 
tion, but  stand  in  the  same  state  we  were  when  we  made 
an  appeal,  and,  if  any  thing  should  come  from  Con- 
necticut by  way  of  prohibition,  then  to  have  a  protest 
ready  to  witness  against  them,  we  being  under  an  appeal 
to  his  Majesty. 

"  It  was  also  propounded,  whether  we  should  not  send 
up  a  remonstrance  of  our  grievances  by  their  unsuita- 
ble carriages  towards  us  in  the  state  wherein  we  are, 
it  being  a  question  whether  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut  is  rightly  informed  of  our  state ;  a  draft 
whereof  (being  prepared)  was  read  and  well  approved 
for  the  substance  of  it  and,  after  debate  upon  it,  was 
by  vote  concluded  to  be  sent,  only  with  alteration  of 
some  passages  therein,  which  was  done  and  sent  to 
Major  John  Mason,  that  by  him  it  might  be  communi- 
cated to  their  general  assembly."  * 

In  accordance  with  the  resolution  recited  above,  the 
annual  election  was  held  on  the  29th  of  May,  when  the 
officers  chosen  "  all  took  oath  for  the  year  ensuing,  or 
until  our  foundation  settlements  be  made  null."  On 
the  same  day  a  general  court  for  the  jurisdiction  was 
held,  at  which  the  governor  told  the  court  that  they 
knew  how  we  stood  in  reference  to  Connecticut  Colony, 
and  that  there  was  a  committee  appointed  for  the  last 
year:  therefore  propounded,  whether  they  would  em- 
power the  same  again ;  which  being  voted,  it  was  con- 
cluded both  for  the  same  persons  and  the  same  power 
as  the  last  year." 

'  The  remonstrance  may  be  found  in  Appendix  No.  VI. 


.     CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  48 1 

Gov.  Winthrop  arrived  not  long  afterward  from 
Europe.  The  New  Haven  people  were  earnestly  desir- 
ing his  arrival,  hoping  that  he  would,  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  letter  he  had  written  to  Major  Mason 
and  the  other  magistrates  of  Connecticut,  "  come  with 
an  olive-branch."  The  earliest  intimation  of  his  being 
in  Hartford  is  in  a  letter  to  him  from  Davenport,  who 
writes :  — 

"  To  the  Right  Worshipful  John  Winthrop,  Esquire,  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  these  present  at  Hartford, 

"  Honored  Sir,  —  These  are  to  congratulate  your  safe  arrival 
and  return  to  your  family,  where  you  have  been  ardently  desired 
and  long  expected.  Blessed  be  our  good  God,  in  Jesus  Christ, 
who  hath,  at  last,  mercifully  brought  you  off  from  court-snares  and 
London-tumults  and  European  troubles,  and  from  all  perils  at  sea, 
and  hath  preserved  your  precious  life  and  health,  and  hath  carried 
yourself,  with  your  two  sons,  as  upon  eagles'  wings,  above  the 
reach  of  all  hurtful  dangers,  unto  your  habitation,  and  hath  kept 
your  dear  wife  and  all  your  children  alive,  and  made  them  joyful 
by  your  safe  and  comfortable  return  unto  them.  Together  with 
them,  I  also,  and  my  wife  and  son  and  daughter,  rejoice  herein, 
as  in  a  gracious  answer  of  many  prayers,  and  in  persuasion  that 
you  are  come  with  an  olive-branch  in  your  mouth ;  according  to 
the  encouragement  and  assurance  which  I  have  received  in  some 
letters  to  myself  from  Captain  Scott  and  from  Mr.  Halstead ;  and 
from  one  sent  to  Mr.  Leete,  which  is  either  the  protograph  or  a 
copy  of  your  letter  to  Major  Mason,  which  seems  to  be  written 
by  yourself,  but  the  seal  was  broken  open  before  it  came  hither. 
Whether  he  hath  that  letter  from  Major  Thompson,  which  you 
mention,  or  not,  I  know  not.  But  I  hear  he  hath  one  from  Mr. 
Whitfield,  the  contents  whereof  I  have  not  heard.  Sir,  give  me 
leave  to  take  notice  of  one  passage  in  yours  [that  there  is  nothing 
but  misunderstanding  that  could  occasion  such  apprehensions  of 
any  injury  done  to  New  Haven  or  their  concernments  ;  and  those 
friends  above  mentioned  wfere  fully  satisfied  thereof,  and  wondered 


482  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

much  that  it  was  not  better  understodd  by yours\  It  was  written 
in  the  line,  them;  that  being  blotted  out,  it  is  interlined, ^^wrjy 
which  makes  the  sense  of  the  whole  very  dark  to  me.  For  if,  by 
yours^  be  meant  our  committee  of  magistrates,  elders,  and  depu- 
ties, intrusted  by  the  freemen  of  this  colony  to  treat  with  our 
friends  of  Connecticut,  I  shall  wonder  at  their  wondering.  For:  i. 
That  manifest  injury  is  done  to  this  colony,  is  proved  by  instances 
in  the  writings  sent  to  Connecticut  and  to  England.  2.  Nor  did 
we  misunderstand  the  patent,  but  saw  and  pleaded  that  New 
Haven  Colony  is  not  mentioned  therein,  and  that  it  was  not  the 
King's  purpose,  nor  yours,  to  destroy  the  distinction  of  colonies, 
nor  our  colony-state ;  and,  in  that  confidence,  desired  that  all  things 
might  stand,  in  statu  quo  firiuSy  till  your  return  ;  which,  when  we 
could  not  obtain,  we  were  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  King ;  yet, 
out  of  tender  respect  to  your  peace  and  honor,  advised,  as  you 
know,  our  friends  to  consult  with  you  before  they  prosecuted  our 
appeal  or  delivered  my  letter  to  my  lord  chamberlain.  Our  friends 
at  Connecticut  regarded  not  our  argumenfs,  which  yet,  I  know,  are 
pleadable  and  would  bear  due  weight  in  the  Chancery  and  at  the 
Council  Table,  and  one  of  them  yourself  is  pleased  to  establish  in 
your  letter  to  Major  Mason.  3.  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  if  we 
had  misunderstood  the  things  which  we  wanted  means  to  under- 
stand from  yourself ;  who  neither  in  your  letter  to  me  from  Lon- 
don, dated  May  13,  1662,  which  I  received  by  Mr.  Ling,  nor  in 
your  next,  dated  March  the  7th  this  year,  signified  to  me  any  other 
thing  than  that  New  Haven  is  still  a  distinct  colony,  notwithstand- 
ing the  Connecticut  patent.  I  do  the  more  insist  on  this,  because 
I  am  told  that  Mr.  Stone,  in  a  letter  which  he  sent  unto  one  in 
Fairfield  {ni  fallor\  saith  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Winthrop,  who  wondereth  that  New  Haven  do  question  their  be- 
ing under  Connecticut,  or  to  that  purpose;  which  is  understood 
as  concluding  the  dissolution  of  this  colony,  which,  I  perceive  by 
what  yourself  and  others  have  written,  is  a  misunderstanding  of 
your  meaning,  so  that  the  misunderstanding  is  to  be  wondered  at 
in  them,  not  in  us.  As  for  what  Mr.  Leete  wrote  to  yourself,  it 
was  his  private  doing,  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  any  of 
us  in  this  colony ;  it  was  not  done  by  him  according  to  his  public 
trust  as  governor,  but  contrary  to  it.     If  they  had  treated  with  us, 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT,  483 

or  should  yet,  as  with  a  distinct  colony,  we  should  readily  agree 
with  them  in  any  rational  and  equal  terms,  for  the  settling  of 
neighborly  peace  and  brotherly  amity  between  them  and  us,  mutu- 
ally, who  have  already,  as  you  see,  patiently  suffered  wrong,  for 
peace's  sake,  in  hope  of  a  just  redress,  at  your  return  into  these 
parts.  *  I  would  not  have  mentioned  these  matters  in  this  letter, 
(which  I  intended  only  for  a  supply  of  my  want  of  bodily  fitness 
for  a  journey  to  Hartford,  to  give  you  a  personal  visit,  in  testimony 
of  my  joy  for  your  safe  arrival  and  return),  but  that  the  expression 
'forenoted  compelled  me  to  speak  something  to  it.  I  long  to  see 
your  face,  and  am  in  hope  that  shortly,  after  your  first  hurries  are 
ovei',  we  shall  enjoy  your  much-desired  presence  with  us  in  your 
chamber  at  my  house,  which  shall  be  as  your  own  while  it  is  mine. 
Then  we  may  have  opportunity,  by  the  will  of  God,  to  confer 
placidly  together,  and  to  give  and  receive  mutual  satisfaction, 
through  a  right  understanding  of  what  is  done  in  our  concern- 
ments. Myself,  my  wife,  my  son  and  daughter,  do  jointly  and 
severally  present  our  humble  service  to  your  honored  self  and  Mrs. 
Winthrop,  with  our  respectful  and  affectionate  salutations  to  your 
two  sons  and  to  all  your  daughters,  praying  that  blessings  from 
heaven  may  be  multiplied  upon  you  and  them,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  in  whom  I  rest.  Honored  Sir, 

"  Yours,  obliged  to  honor  and  serve  you  in  the  Lord, 

"John  Davenport. 

"  N.  H.,  the  22d  day  of  the  4th  month,  called  June,  1663." 

Gov.  Leete's  letter  to  Winthrop  congratulating  him 
on  his  safe  return  and  expressing  confidence  that  he 
would  be  a  medium  to  bring  the  strife  between  the 
colonies  to  a  comfortable  issue,  has  been  given  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  That  the  New  Haven  people  were 
disappointed  in  their  hope  that  through  Winthrop's 
influence  Connecticut  would  reverse  its  action,  will 
appear  in  the  sequel ;  but  Winthrop's  reasons  for  disap- 
pointing them  are  not  on  record.  A  cloud  of  mystery 
envelops  the  matter,  and  we  can  only  exhibit  the  facts. 


484  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

That  Leete  and  some  others  of  the  New  Haven  com- 
mittee began  very  soon  to  doubt  whether  things  would 
come  to  a  comfortable  issue  by  means  of  Winthrop, 
appears  in  a  letter  which  Leete  wrote  to  Winthrop  on 
the  20th  of  July  :  — 

"  For   the   Right   Worshipful  John    Winthrop^   Esquire^   Gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  Colony^  at  Hartford,  These :  — 

"  Much  Honored  Sir,  —  In  my  last  I  informed  you  of  your 
very  acceptable  letter  sent  us  by  Major  Thompson  and  Mr.  Scott 
jointly  attesting  it ;  the  purport  whereof  suited  well  with  minie  to 
you  in  England,  to  make  your  patent  a  covert,  but  no  control 
to  our  jurisdiction,  until  we  accorded  with  mutual  satisfaction  to 
become  one,  which  I  have  been  and  still  am  a  friend  to  promove  in 
a  righteous  and  amicable  way.  But  truly,  I  think,  a  just  expedient 
hath  not  hitherto  been  seasonably  attended  to  accomplish  the 
same  ;  but  rather  that  which  hath  irritated,  and  so  conduced  to  the 
contrary;  which  to  behold  hath  been  a  grief  to  some.  [It  hath 
been  a  grief]  to  see  the  strings  of  the  instrument  so  stretched  as 
to  make  it  untunable  to  play  in  consort,  the  chief  music  which  I 
delight  to  hear,  especially  in  jarring  times ;  and  therefore  hoped 
and  longed  to  see  it  taken  into  the  hand  of  a  more  knowing  artist, 
and  one  apt  and  inclined  to  make  uniting  and  composing  melody, 
as  (in  my  understanding)  was  sweetly  begun  to  be  sounded  in  the 
language  of  your  letter.  But  as  yet  we  find  not  such  harmonious 
effects  to  ensue  in  a  practical  way  as  were  to  be  wished  for. 
Wherefore  I  am  desired  by  our  committee,  or  some  of  them,  to 
write  unto  yourself,  earnestly  entreating  that  you  would  please 
to  send  us  a  plain,  positive,  and  particular  answer  in  writing  to  this 
question,  viz.,  whether  the  contents  of  that  your  letter  aforesaid 
shall  be  performed  to  us  or  no,  according  to  the  genuine  sense 
thereof.  Good  sir,  be  pleased  that  either  your  own  or  your  com- 
mittee's answer  may  be  sent  us  by  Mr.  Pierson,  who  intends  to 
visit  and  wait  upon  you  for  the  same,  as  I  also  should  have  done, 
had  not  something  more  than  ordinary  interrupted,  together  with 
some  hopes  we  might  enjoy  your  presence  here,  before  your  go- 
ing into  the  Bay,  as  was  intimated  to  us.    So  with  many  thanks 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  48$ 

• 
and  chiefest  respects  presented  from  myself  and  wife  unto  you  all, 
acknowledging  our  great  engagements  for  your  love  and  sympathy 
in  your  last  expressed,  I  take  leave,  and  remain 

"  Your  cordial  friend  and  servant, 

"William  Leete. 

"GoiLFORD,  July  20,  1663." 

"  Sir,  —  Hearing  that  you  sought  for  your  own  copy  but  could 
not  find  it  when  Mr.  Jones  and  Mr.  John  Davenport  were  with  you, 
I  have  here  inclosed  sent  a  true  copy  of  your  letter  as  it  came  to 
my  hands." 

From  the  letter  and  its  postscript  we  may  infer  that 
two  of  the  committee  had  conferred  with  Winthrop  in 
a  personal  interview,  and  that  upon  their  report  Leete 
doubted  whether  Winthrop  would  abide  by  the  agree- 
ment he  had  made  in  London  with  Major  Thompson 
and  Mr.  Scott  acting  in  behalf  of  New  Haven. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  there  was  a  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  at  Hartford,  but 
there  is  nothing  in  the  record  to  show*  that  the  gov- 
ernor was  present.  Action  was  taken  concerning  New 
Haven  as  follows :  viz.,  "  This  court  doth  nominate  and 
appoint  the  deputy-governor,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Daniel 
Clark,  and  John  Allyn,  or  any  three  or  two  of  them,  to 
be  a  committee  to  treat  with  our  honored  friends  of 
New  Haven,  Milford,  Branford,  and  Guilford,  about 
settling  their  union  and  incorporation  with  this  colony 
of  Connecticut ;  and  they  are  empowered  to  act  accord- 
ing to  the  instructions  given  to  the  committee  sent  to 
New  Haven  in  March  last ;  and,  in  case  they  cannot 
effect  a  union,  they  are  hereby  authorized  publicly  to 
declare  unto  them  that  this  Assembly  cannot  well 
resent '  their  proceeding  in  civil  government  as  a  dis- 

'  Resent^  to  feel  back  in  return ;  to  think  over. 


486  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

tinct  jurisdiction,  being  included  within  the  charter 
granted  to  Connecticut  corporation ;  and  likewise  they 
are  publicly  to  declare  that  this  Assembly  doth  desire 
and  cannot  but  expect  that  the  inhabitants  of  New 
Haven,  Milford,  Branford,  Guilford,  and  Stamford,  do 
yield  subjection  to  the  government  here  established 
according  to  the  tenor  of  our  charter,  which  is  publicly 
to  be  read  in  New  Haven."  On  the  26th  of  the  same 
month,  three  of  this  committee,  Messrs.  Wyllys,  Clark, 
and  Allyn,  were  in  New  Haven,  where  they  renewed 
the  proposals  made  -by  Connecticut  in  March.  The 
New  Haven  committee  responded  by  sending  the  fol- 
lowing communication  in  the  handwriting  of  William 
Jones :  —  / 

"NEW  HAVEN  COMMITTEE'S  PROPOSALS,  AUG.  26,  1663. 

"  To  the  Honored  Committee  from  the  General  Assembly  of  Con- 
ticut,  Mr,  Wyllys,  Mr,  Clark,  and  Mr,  Allyn, 

"  Gentlemen,  —  In  order  to  a  friendly  treaty  and  amicable 
composure  of  matters  in  difference  between  us,  we  earnestly 
desire  you  would  restore  us  to  our  entire  colony  state  by  dis- 
claiming that  party  at  Guilford  and  Stamford ;  and  so  doing,  we 
offer  the  following  queries  to  your  consideration,  as  matter  for 
such  treaty  :  viz.,  — 

"I.  Whether  the  fundamental  laws  for  government,  especially 
that  touching  the  qualifications  of  freemen,  shall  be  the  same 
with  Boston  or  ours,  (i.e.)  members  of  some  one  or  other  of  our 
churches. 

^"  2.  Whether  our  church  order  and  privileges  shall  not  be 
infringed  nor  disturbed,  and  that  both  the  choice  and  calling  in  of 
ministers  in  each  plantation  be  established  a  church  right  forever. 

^"3.  Whether  all  our  present  freemen  shall  be  forthwith  ad- 
mitted and  empowered  to  act  as  your  own  freemen  to  all  intents 
and  purposes. 

V*'4.  Whether  any  of  our  former  adjudications  in  our  distinct 
colony  state  shall  be  liable  to  appeals  or  be  called  in  question. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  487 

^,  Whether  we  shall  be  immediately  established  a  distinct 
county,  and  to  have  so  many  magistrates  as  necessary,  four  at 
least,  with  a  president  chosen  yearly  by  our  own  county  court, 
together  with  other  inferior  officers  to  be  nominated  by  ourselves. 
^*  6.  Whether  any  appeals  shaU  be  at  any  time  allowed  from  our 
county  court  in  ordinary  cases,  unless  to  our  own  court  of  assist- 
ants, and  that  upon  weighty  grounds  and  with  good  caution,  to 
prevent  trouble  and  charge  to  the  county. 

^.  Whether  there  shall  not  be  a  court  of  assistants  at  New 
Haven  yearly,  or  oftener  if  need  require,  to  try  capital  causes  and 
hear  such  appeals,  consisting  of  our  own  and  such  other  magis- 
trates as  we  shall  desire  by  order  from  our  president. 

^*  8.  Whether  all  our  present  magistrates  and  officers  shall 
remain  in  full  power  to  govern  the  people  as  formerly,  until  new  be 
orderly  chosen  at  the  next  election  court  after  this  agreement. 

"  9.  Whether  all  rates  and  public  charges  granted  or  levied  or 
due  in  each  colony  before  this  agreement,  be  paid  and  discharged 
by  the  inhabitants  proportionably  in  a  distinct  way,  and  not  other- 
wise. 

"  10.  Whether  at  the  next  election  there  shall  be  a  committee 
chosen  and  appointed  of  your  and  our  ablest  ministers  and  other 
freemen,  to  consult  and  prepare  a  body  of  laws  out  of  your  and 
our  laws  most  consonant  to  Scripture. 

"II.  Whether  until  such  a  body  of  laws  be  framed  and  agreed 
upon  anew  mutually,  all  matters  in  our  towns  and  courts  shall  be 
issued  and  done  according  to  our  own  laws  as  formerly. 

"  12.  Whether  all  our  plantations  according  to  their  anciently 
reputed  and  received  bounds  shall  not  so  remain  unalterably,  but 
receive  confirmation  by  authority  of  the  patent. 

"  That  such  treaty  shall  not  be  binding  to  us  without  consent  of 
our  confederates  and  general  court  of  freemen. 

"Whether  the  freemen  in  each  of  our  towns  may  not  make 
orders  for  the  town  afEairs. 

"  These  imperfect  queries  we  at  present  offer  to  your  considera- 
tion, reserving  liberty  to  propound  what  further  we  shall  see  need- 
ful, allowed  by  the  patent 

"  William  Leete, 
"  In  the  name  and  with  consent  of  the  committee^ 


'T''?., '"~!'— "      ITT 


u±. 


!T^    l!b     xCD     5. 


x  ^xhIddtt.  :r  5 


v--;ir-*    r-.e  ^r^.iyns-r-  in^i  -rxin-irr*  ir  :ur  s:ir-3  r:ii*T 


-^^  ■",-'  v-  ly.  »»  -.Ar.:-j--c  TUT]  a  :'ir  ±iriir,  scr  dint  w«  admit 
''/f  >•  *  /  /  ^''^^-^r^^ri^i.  j-ir  aj  fr.a  ±,^.  tizuir  :her*-:t.  be:  wiiat  Laws 
r..*  I  A  '•/,■'.*'  ,rr  r.^'  '.-.i*r*Tr:J:  inr:  :.'cd:Liniie  :o  the  pcblic  weal  of 
f-  >t' '.  AT  A  v^f^,  vt  kr*  r*a/:T  y-j  rrint  tie  establishment  thereof: 
.»f»/]  ;/»'*i^'#;;ifIy  fr/r  r^^l.f^jkZifjT.  of  freenien  we  are  ready  to  grant 
fr^»*  *t,*y  *h/#i|  ^/^  men  f>f  a  re;;;^Ioas  carriaije,  visibly  so,  having 
/rf,/|  jf//<«;^«t%if,;/  ^/me  (Jtrnptlnucr/  of  estate,  and  shall  bring  a  cer- 
f  »^/  ,♦>'•  ,iffirtt,;ti'ivf  ih'Ai  they  are  thus  qualified  from  the  deacons  of 
iht-  t\intfU  ^tn]  two  of  the  Jiclcctmcn  of  the  town  where  they  live. 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  489 

and,  if  there  be  no  deacons,  then  some  other  known  and  approved 
persons  with  the  selectmen  as  before. 

^  "  2.  That  the  church  order  and  privileges  within  these  plan- 
tations, New  Haven,  Milford,  Branford,  Guilford,  and  Stamford, 
shall  not  be  infringed  or  disturbed  by  us,  or  any  from  us,  and  that 
the  choice  and  call  of  the  church-officers  in  each  plantation  shall 
remain  a  church-right  forever. 

«^"3.  That  upon  our  and  your  union  all  the  present  freemen 
within  these  plantations  shall  be  forthwith  invested  with  full 
power  to  be  and  act  as  freemen  of  Connecticut  corporation  in  all 
concerns. 

I  **  4.  That  all  former  transactions  in  courts  and  administrations 
as  a  distinct  jurisdiction  shall  be  totally  freed  from  future  callings 
into  question  in  the  Court  at  Connecticut  or  elsewhere  within  our 
precincts,  unless  any  thing  controversial  be  at  present  dependent  in 
the  Court  here. 

"5.  That  the  plantations  forementioned  be  immediately  upon 
our  union  established  a  distinct  county,  and  to  have  so  many  offi- 
cers as  may  be  sufficient  to  carry  on  matters  of  civil  judicature  as 
a  county,  and  shall  have  power  to  try  and  issue  all  cases  according 
to  the  tenor  of  our  charter,  provided  that  such  cases  as  respect 
life,  limb,  banishment,  or  total  confiscation,  shall  be  issued  by  a 
court  of  assistants,  which  shall  be  once  a  year,  or  oftener  if  any 
thing  extraordinary  fall  out  within  any  of  these  plantations  neces- 
sitating the  same,  which  court  of  assistants  shall  consist  of  such  as 
are  chosen  and  ordained  yearly  for  these  plantations,  whereof  one 
shall  be  the  president  of  the  county  or  moderator  of  the  courts 
kept  in  this  county,  and  chosen  to  that  place  by  the  civil  officers 
that  attend  the  county  courts ;  unto  which  officers  for  the  consti- 
tuting of  the  court  of  assistants  shall  be  added  three  assistants  out 
of  the  corporation  such  as  shall  be  yearly  appointed  thereunto  by 
the  General  Assembly  held  in  May,  and  such  as  are  grieved  at  the 
sentence  of  the  county  court  shall  have  liberty  upon  good  caution 
to  appeal  to  the  court  of  assistants ;  and  that  all  cases  tried  by  this 
court  or  the  county  court  dependent  twixt  party  and  party  respect- 
ing damage  to  the  sum  of  forty  shillings  or  upwards,  and  likewise 
capital  crimes  and  offences,  shall  be  tried  by  a  jury  either  of  six 
or  twelve  freemen,  according  as  the  nature  of  the  case  require,  but 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  49 1 

sioners,  deputies,  and  constables.  As  for  selectmen  who  are  to 
order  the  civil,  prudential  afiairs  of  the  respective  towns,  they  to 
be  yearly  chosen  by  a  major  vote  of  the  approved  inhabitants,  with 
other  necessary  town  officers  in  your  respective  places  in  this 
county. 

**  12.  That  all  public  charges  and  levies,  due  for  time  past  and 
until  this  instant,  shall  be  defrayed  by  the  respective  towns  in  this 
county  as  formerly,  and  for  those  several  persons  within  this  county 
that  have  subjected  to  Connecticut  government,  that  they  shall 
also  be  rated  after  the  sum  of  a  penny  per  pound  for  their  ratable 
estates,  with  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  in  their  respective  towns 
as  before  expressed. 

"  Unto  these  proposals  we  whose  names  are  subscribed  desire  a 
return  from  the  honored  committee,  whether  you  are  willing  to 
accept  of  them,  to  the  settlement  of  your  union  with  our  corpo- 
ration. 

"Samuel  Wyllys, 
Daniel  Clark, 
John  Allyn. 

"  New  Haven,  27  August,  1663." 

The  negotiation  between  the  colonies  was  at  this 
time  in  a  dead-lock ;  New  Haven  refusing  to  submit,  or 
even  negotiate,  unless  Connecticut  would  "  first  restore 
us  to  our  right  state  again,"  and  Connecticut  ofifering 
nothing  more  than  "to  retract  those  commissions  that 
have  been  given  to  any  persons  that  have  been  settled 
in  public  employ  either  at  Guilford  or  Stamford."  New 
Haven  insisted  that  Connecticut  should  not  only  re- 
tract these  commissions,  but,  by  two  other  retractions, 
disclaim  those  who  had  revolted  from  New  Haven  to 
Connecticut,  and  admit  that  New  Haven  was  a  distinct 
colony.  In  September,  the  controversy  was  brought 
before  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  on 
the  following  complaint :  — 


492  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

"  The  Complaint  of  the  Commissioners  of  New  Haven,  in  behalf 
of  that  Colony,  humbly  presented  to  the  rest  of  the  Honored  Com' 
miss  toners,  for  their  Advice,  Aid,  and  Succor,  as  followeth  :  — 

"Viz.,  that  sundry  of  the  inhabitants  of  several  of  our  towns 
have  been  taken  under  the  government  of  Connecticut,  and  by 
them  encouraged  to  disown  our  authority.  They  refuse  to  observe 
their  oaths  of  fidelity',  to  attend  our  courts  or  meetings  called  by 
our  authority,  or  to  perform  other  duties  with  the  rest  of  our 
people,  and  so  our  settled  order  and  peace  is  much  prejudiced. 

2.  "  That  constables  or  officers  are,  by  Connecticut's  authority, 
appointed  and  set  up  amongst  us,  who  are  very  troublesome  to  us. 
These  things  and  the  sad  consequences  thereof  are  so  aggrieving 
to  the  generality  of  our  people,  and  like  to  bring  forth  such  uncom- 
fortable effects,  that  we  cannot  but  present  the  matter  to  your 
serious  consideration,  to  take  some  effectual  course  that  such 
actings  may  be  recalled  and  forborne,  and  the  articles  of  confeder- 
ation duly  observed  towards  us,  a  distinct  colony,  your  observant 
confederates. 

"In  the  name  of  the  Colony  of  New  Haven. 

"William  Leete. 
Benjamin  Fenn. 

"Boston,  17th  September,  1663.'* 

^^  An  Answer  to  New  Haven  Gentlemen, 

"  The  commissioners  for  Connecticut  do  conceive  that  there  is 
no  such  cause  of  complaint  at  present  from  New  Haven  as  hath 
been  mentioned  in  their  paper,  there  having  been  divers  friendly 
treaties  about  the  matters  in  difference,  and  very  amicable  propo- 
sitions and  tenders  formerly,  and  now  again  very  lately,  pro- 
pounded by  a  committee  from  the  court  of  Connecticut,  who  had 
of  late  a  friendly  conference  upon  it  with  the  committee  of  New 
Haven,  and  a  copy  of  those  propositions  was  presented  now  by 
Mr.  Wyllys,  one  of  the  magistrates  and  one  of  the  said  committee 
of  Connecticut,  and  the  said  amicable  propositions  were  now  read 
to  all  the  commissioners,  and  not  disliked  by  them;  and  we  hope 
they  are  yet  in  a  fair  way  of  further  treaty  toward  a  friendly  com- 
pliance, and  are  assured  that  the  court  at  Connecticut  did  never 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT,  493 

intend  to  do,  nor  will  do,  any  injury  or  wrong  to  them,  but  will  be 
ready,  to  attend  all  just  and  friendly  ways  of  love  and  correspond- 
ence; and,  whatever  hath  been  now  suggested  by  way  of  com- 
plaint, we  doubt  not  but  they  will  return  a  fair  and  satisfactory 
answer  to  them  when  they  have  notice  thereof. 

"John  Winthrop. 
John  Talcott. 

^'Sbptbmber  17,  1663." 

New  Haven  V  Reply, 

"The  commissioners  of  New  Haven  Colony  cannot  approve 
of  the  answer  or  apology  of  Connecticut  commissioners,  in  saying 
that  they  conceive  there  is  no  ground  for  our  complaint,  the  case 
being  as  related,  and  can  prove  nothing  being  done  to  reverse  or 
satisfy  upon  that  account,  or  promised  but  conditionally  and  in 
treaty  only,  wherein  we  have  and  do  desire  to  carry  as  amicably 
towards  them  as  they  towards  ns  ;  but  how  it  should  be  said  that 
the  court  of  Connecticut  neither  intended  nor  would  do  us  any 
wrong,  while  such  injuries  as  are  complained  of  are  not  righted, 
nor  yet  absolutely  promised  so  to  be,  we  see  not,  and  therefore 
cannot  but  desire  the  sense  of  the  commissioners  upon  the  acting 
complained  of,  while  it  is  not  known  how  far  those  propositions 
mentioned  will  be  satisfactory  to  our  people,  nor  what  issue  will 
be  attained  for  settlement  of  affairs  according  to  confederation  (in 
case),  which  we  still  cleave  unto.  "  William  Leete. 

Benjamin  Fenn." 

"  The  Answer  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  to  the  Com- 
plaint of  New  Haven  is  as  followeth :  — 

"  The  commissioners  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  hav- 
ing considered  the  complaint  exhibited  by  New  Haven  against  Con- 
necticut for  infringing  their  power  of  jurisdiction,  as  in  the  said 
complaint  is  more  particularly  expressed,  together  with  the  answer 
returned  thereto  by  Connecticut  commissioners,  with  some  other 
debates  and  conferences  that  have  passed  between  them,  do  judge 
meet  to  declare,  that  the  said  colony  of  New  Haven  being  owned 
in  the  Articles  of  Confederation  as  distinct  from  Connecticut,  and 


494  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

having  been  so  owned  by  the  colonies  jointly  in  this  present  meet- 
ing in  all  their  actings,  may  not  by  any  act  of  violence  have  their 
liberty  of  jurisdiction  infringed  by  any  other  of  the  United  Colonies, 
without  breach  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  that  where 
any  act  of  power  hath  been  exerted  against  their  authority,  that 
the  same  ought  to  be  recalled,  and  their  power  reserved  to  them 
entire,  until  such  time  as  in  an  orderly  way  it  shall  be  otherwise 
disposed;  and  for  particular  grievances  mentioned  in  their  com- 
plaint, that  they  be  referred  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners at  Hartford,  where  Connecticut,  having  timely  notice,  may 
give  their  answer  thereto,  unless  in  the.  mean  time  there  be  an 
amicable  uniting  for  the  establishment  of  their  peace,  the  which 
we  are  persuaded  will  be  very  acceptable  to  the*  neighboring 
colonies. 

"  Simon  Bradstreet,  President, 

Thomas  Danforth. 

Thomas  Prince. 

JOSIAH   WiNSLOW." 

By  this  time  Winthrop,  as  appears  from  his  signa- 
ture to  one  of  the  above  documents,  had  shown  that  he 
accorded  with  the  other  leading  men  of  Connecticut  in 
their  policy  toward  New  Haven.  He  doubtless  feared 
that  if  Connecticut,  following  the  advice  which  he  sent 
from  London,  should  fully  and  unconditionally  retract 
what  she  had  done,  and  acknowledge  New  Haven  as  a 
distinct  colony,  the  party  of  which  Davenport  and 
Gilbert  were  leaders  would  be  able  to  prevent  the 
success  of  any  negotiations  for  union  under  one  gov- 
ernment. For  the  sake  of  the  common  good  he  repu- 
diated the  engagement  he  had  made,  and  joined  in  the 
effort  to  force  New  Haven  into  submission.  He  shows, 
however,  the  reluctance  of  a  noble  mind  to  do  so  mean 
an  act,  keeping  himself  in  the  background,  avoiding 
appointment  on  the  committees   successively  sent  to 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  495 

New  Haven,  and  absenting  himself  from  the  court 
when  on  the  8th  of  October  the  following  action  was 
taken  in  regard  to  New  Haven  :  — 

"  This  court  doth  declare  that  they  can  do  no  less  for  their  own 
indemnity  than  to  manifest  our  dissatisfaction  with  the  proceedings 
of  the  plantations  of  New  Haven,  Milford,  Branford,  &c.,  in  their 
distinct  standing  from  us  in  point  of  government ;  it  being  directly 
opposite  to  the  tenor  of  the  charter  lately  granted  to  our  colony  of 
Connecticut,  in  which  charter  these  plantations  are  included.  We 
also  do  expect  their  submission  to  our  government,  according  to 
our  charter  and  his  Majesty's  pleasure  therein  expressed ;  it  being 
a  stated  conclusion  of  the  Commissioners  that  jurisdiction  right 
always  goelh  with  patent  And  whereas,  the  aforesaid  people  of 
New  Haven,  &c.,  pretend  they  have  power  of  government  distinct 
from  us,  and  have  made  several  complaints  of  wrongs  received 
from  us,  we  do  hereby  declare  that  our  Council  will  be  ready  to 
attend  them,  or  a  committee  of  theirs,  and  if  they  can  rationally 
make  it  appear  that  they  have  such  power,  and  that  we  have 
wronged  them  according  to  their  complaints,  we  shall  be  ready  to 
attend  them  with  due  satisfaction.  (The  Governor  absent  when 
this  vote  passed.)  The  Court  appoints  Mr.  Wyllys  and  the  Secre- 
tary to  draw  up  a  letter  to  the  New  Haven  gentlemen,  and  inclose 
this  act  of  the  court  in  it") 

This  action  of  the  General  Assembly  was  probably 
taken  after  the  receipt  of,  and  with  reference  to,  the 
contents  of  the  following  communication  from  the  New 
Haven  committee  :  — 

"Honored  Gentlemen, —  Seeing  that  it  hath  pleased  the 
Almighty  who  is  our  defence,  at  this  session  of  the  Commission- 
ers, not  to  suffer  any  mine  to  spring  for  subverting  that  ancient 
wall  of  New  England's  safety,  which  Himself  hath  erected  upon 
the  foundation  of  our  so  solemn  and  religious  confederation,  but 
further  unanimously  to  establish  the  same,  we  thought  it  might  not 
be  unacceptable  on  our  part  to  present  you  with  our  request  at  this 
season  of   your  General  Assembly's  meeting,  that   you  would 


( 


496  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

observe  to  do  according  to  their  conclusions,  renundingr  to  recall 
all  and  every  of  your  former  acts  of  a  contrary  tendency  and  please 
to  signify  the  same  to  us  before  our  General  Court  held  the  22d 
inst.,  who  will  then  expect  it  before  they  return  answer  to  your 
committee's  proposals.    Your  cordial  and  ready  attendance  unto 
this  our  request,  we  conceive,  will  be  no  obstruction  to  an  amica- 
ble treaty  for  compliance,  but  rather  the  contrary  if  the  Lord  shall 
please  to  own  and  succeed  such  endeavors  as  means  for  the  better 
flourishing  of  religion,  and  righteousness  with  peace,  in  this  wil- 
derness.    And  we  cannot  apprehend  that  you  need  to  fear  any 
damage  to  your  patent  hereby  from  his  Majesty's  taking  ofifence  at 
so  honest  a  carriage,  there  being  no  express  interdiction  of  New 
Haven  colony  inserted  therein,  nor  any  intendment  of  your  agent 
to  have  it  so  injuriously  carried  against  us.    And  now  also  have  you 
the  encouragement  of  all  your  confederates  to  apologize  upon  that 
account,  in  case  any  turbulent  spirits  should  suggest  a  complaint, 
whom   the   righteous   God  can  countermand  and  disappoint,  to 
whose  wisdom  and  grace  wx  recommend  you  and  all  your  weighty 
concernments ;  resting,  gentlemen,  your  very  loving  and  expectant 
confederates. 

"The  Committee  for  New  Haven  Coloxy. 

*•  By  James  Bishop,  Secretary. 
"  New  Haven,  Oct  6,  1663." 

At  the  General  Court  for  the  jurisdiction  of  New 
Haven,  held  Oct.  22,  there  were  read  to  the  freemen 
the  above  communication  from  the  New  Haven  com- 
mittee to  the  General  Assembly  at  Hartford,  the  late 
decision  of  the  Commissioners  maintaining  the  colony- 
State  of  New  Haven,  and  the  letter  of  Winthrop  to 
Major  Mason  and  "the  rest  of  the  Court  there  at  Hart- 
ford." "The  deputies  also  signified  the  mind  of  the 
freemen,  as  not  at  all  satisfied  with  Connecticut  com- 
mittee's proposals,  but  thought  there  should  be  no  • 
more  treaty  with  them  unless  they  first  restore  us  to 
our  right   state   again." 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT.  497 

"The  matter  was  largely  debated,  and  the  Court 
considering  how  they  of  Connecticut  do  cast  off  our 
motion  in  the  forementioned  letter  and  give  us  no 
answer,  but  that  contrary  thereunto  is  reported,  as  that 
they  have  further  encouraged  those  at  Guilford  and 
Stamford  ;  therefore  this  court  did  now  order  that  no 
treaty  be  made  by  this  colony  with  Connecticut  before 
such  acts  of  power  exerted  by  them  upon  any  of  our 
towns  be  revoked  and  recalled,  according  to  Honored 
Mr.  Winthrop's  letter  engaging  the  same,  the  Commis- 
sioners' advice,  and  our  frequent  desires." 

At  the  same  court,  "  after  large  debate  thereupon,  it 
was  concluded  as  best  for  us,  and  most  feasible  as  the 
case  now  stands  with  us,  that  we  seek  a  letter  of  exemp- 
tion from  his  Majesty,  and  leave  the  matter  concern- 
ing a  patent  in  our  instructions  to  our  agents  in 
England  as  they  shall  judge  best/'  For  the  manage- 
ment of  this  affair,  a  committee  was  appointed,  and  for 
its  expenses  a  rate  of  three  hundred  pounds  was  levied. 
And  as  there  were  many  falling  off  to  Connecticut,  it 
was  "  ordered  that  the  magistrates  do  give  forth  their 
warrants  according  to  law,  to  attach  and  make  seizure 
of  such  personal  estate  in  proportion,  for  the  payment 
of  their  rates,  who,  upon  legal  demand  made,  have  or 
shall  refuse  the  same,  and  that  the  orders  provided  in 
case  of  distresses  be  carefully  attended ;  provided  that 
for  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace,  in  case  of  re- 
sistance and  forcible  rescue,  violence  be  not  used  to 
occasion  the  shedding  of  blood  saving  in  their  own 
defence,  but  that  such  officer  or  officers,  so  by  force  of 
arms  resisted  in  discharge  of  their  duty,  make  report 
of  such  resistance  and  rescue  with  sufficient  proof  to 


498  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

the  magistrate  or  magistrates  or  other  officer  of  the 
plantation  where  it  happens,  in  due  season  to  be 
presented  to  the  General  Court." 

New  Haven,  having  taken  much  encouragement  from 
the  decision  of  the  Commissioners  in  her  favor,  was 
further  strengthened  by  the  reception  of  two  commu- 
nications from  his  Majesty's  government,  acknowledg- 
ing her  as  a  distinct  colony.  One  was  only  indirectly 
addressed  by  the  home  government  to  New  Haven,  but 
the  other  was  especially  precious  as  being  under  his 
Majesty's  "own  princely  hand,  and  sign  manual  in  red 
wax  annexed,"  and  addressed  expressly  to  the  governor 
and  assistants  of  New  Haven  colony  as  well  as  to  its 
confederates.  A  court  of  magistrates  held  in  December 
improved  the  opportunity  to  issue  the  following  most 
loyal  proclamation,  viz. :  — 

"Whereas  the  King's  Majesty,  by  his  letter  under  his  own 
princely  hand,  and  sign  manual  in  red  wax  annexed,  bearing  date 
the  2 1  St  of  June,  1663,  from  his  royal  court  at  Whitehall,  directed 
to  his  trusty  and  well-beloved  subjects,  the  governors  and  assist- 
ants of  the  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  New  Haven,  and  Connecticut 
colonies  in  New  England ;  and  the  Lords  of  his  Majesty's  most 
honorable  Privy  Council,  in  their  letter  from  his  Majesty's  court 
aforesaid,  bearing  date  the  24th  of  June  in  the  year  aforesaid,  su- 
perscribed, *  For  his  Majesty's  special  service.  To  our  ve»y  loving 
friend,  John  Endicott,  Esquire,  Governor  of  his  Majesty's  planta- 
tions in  New  England,  and  to  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the 
colony  of  the  Massachusetts  with  the  rest  of  the  governors  of  the 
English  plantations  in  New  England  respectively,'  and  by  order 
of  the  General  Court  at  Boston  entered  upon  record  in  that 
court,  particularly  directed  to  the  governor  of  the  said  colony  of 
New  Haven,  in  which  letters  his  Majesty  hath  commanded  this 
colony  many  matters  of  weight,  very  much  respecting  his  Majesty's 
service  and  the  good  of  this  countr}'  in  general,  expecting  upon 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT.  At99 

his  displeasure  the  strict  observance  thereof,  which  this  court  (most 
of  the  towns  of  this  colony  being  situate  by  the  seaside  and  so 
fitly  accommodated  to  fulfil  his  Majesty's  commands)  are  resolved 
to  their  utmost  to  obey  and  fulfil ;  but  in  their  consultation  there- 
about they  find,  through  the  disloyal  and  seditious  principles  and 
practices  of  some  men  of  inconsiderable  interests,  some  of  his 
Majesty's  good  subjects  in  this  colony  have  been  seduced  to  rend 
themselves  from  this  colony,  by  which  division  his  Majesty's 
affairs  in  these  parts  (in  case  some  speedy  course  be  not  taken 
for  the  prevention  thereof)  is  like  to  suffer,  the  peace  of  this 
country  to  be  endangered,  and  the  heathen  amongst  us  scandal- 
ized ;  the  which  if  we  should  connive  at,  especially  at  this  time,  his 
Majesty  having  so  particularly  directed  his  royal  commands  to  this 
colony  as  aforesaid,  we  might  justly  incur  his  displeasure  against 
us :  this  Court  doth  therefore  in  his  Majesty's  name  require  all  the 
members  and  inhabitants  of  this  colony  heartily  to  close  with  the 
endeavors  of  the  Governor  and  assistants  thereof,  for  the  fulfilling 
his  Majesty's  commands  in  the  said  letters  expressed,  and  in  order 
thereunto  to  return  to  their  due  obedience  and  paying  their  arrears 
of  rates  for  defraying  the  ;iecessary  charges  of  the  colony,  and 
other  dues,  within  six  days  after  the  publication  hereof,  unto  such 
person  or  persons  as  are  or  shall  be  appointed  to  collect  the  same 
in  attendance  to  the  laws  and  orders  of  this  colony.  All  which 
being  done,  this  court  shall  forever  pass  by  all  former  disobedience 
to  the  government ;  but  if  any  shall  presume  to  stand  out  against 
his  Majesty's  pleasure  so  declared  as  aforesaid  concerning  this 
colony,  at  your  peril  be  it :  this  court  shall  not  fail  to  call  the  said 
persons  to  a  strict  account,  and  proceed  against  them  (as  disloyal  to 
his  Majesty  and  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  this  colony)  according 
to  law." 

This  Declaration,  as  it  is  called  in  the  records,  was 
published  in  the  several  plantations.  At  Stamford  it 
"  was  violently  plucked  down  "  by  the  Connecticut  con- 
stable, and  "with  reproachful  speeches  rejected,  though 
sent  in  his  Majesty's  name,  and  by  the  authority  of  our 
court  of  magistrates."     When  published  at  Guilford, 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  $01 

this  colony,  to  require  them  to  forbear  putting  in  execution  their 
aforesaid  declaration  against  any  of  those  that  have  joined  to  our 
government,  and  also  to  administer  the  oath  of  a  constable  to  John 
Meigs,  and  to  require  him  to  use  his  utmost  endeavor  to  maintain 
the  peace  of  this  colony  amongst  those  at  Guilford  that  have  joined 
to  the  government  of  this  colony." 

To  his  certificate  of  the  appointment  of  this  com- 
mittee, the  Secretary  adds,  "Mr.  James  Richards  is 
desired  to  attend  the  service  also." 

The  visit  of  this  committee  to  Guilford  is  thus  related 
in  "  New  Haven's  Case  Stated :  **  — 

"  On  the  30th  of  December,  1663,  two  of  your  magistrates,  with 
sundry  young  men  and  your  marshal,  came  speedily  to  Guilford, 
accompanying  Rossiter  and  his  son,  and  countenancing  them  and 
their  party  against  the  authority  of  this  General  Court,  though  you 
know  how  obnoxious  they  were  formerly  to  this  jurisdiction,  for 
contempt  of  authority  and  seditious  practices,  and  that  they  have 
been  the  ringleaders  of  this  rent;  and  that  Bray  Rossiter,  the 
father,  hath  been  long  and  still  is  a  man  of  a  turbulent,  restless, 
fractious  spirit,  and  whose  designs  you  have  cause  to  suspect  to  be 
to  cause  a  war  between  these  two  colonies,  or  to  ruin  New  Haven 
Colony:  yet  him  you  accompanied  in  opposition  to  this  colony, 
without  sending  or  writing  before  to  our  governor  to  be  informed 
concerning  the  truth  in  this  matter.  Sundry  horses,  as  we  are 
informed,  accompanied  them  to  Guilford,  whither  they  came  at 
unseasonable  hour,  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  night,  these  short  days, 
when  you  might  rationally  think  that  all  the  people  were  gone  to 
bed,  and  by  shooting  of  sundry  guns,  some  of  yours,  or  of  their 
party  in  Guilford,  alarmed  the  town;  which,  when  the  governor 
took  notice  of,  and  of  the  unsatisfying  answer  given  to  such  as 
inquired  the  reason  of  that  disturbance,  he  suspected,  and  that  not 
without  cause,  that  hostile  attempts  were  intended  by  their  com- 
pany; whereupon  he  sent  a  letter  to  New  Haven  to  inform  the 
magistrates  there  concerning  matters  at  Guilford,  that  many  were 
affrighted,  and  he  desired  that  the  magistrates  of  New  Haven  would 


502  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

presently  come  to  their  succor,  and  as  many  of  the  troopers  as  could 
be  got,'  alleging  for  a  reason,  his  apprehension  of  their  desperate 
resolutions.    The  governor's  messenger  also  excited  to  haste,  as 
apprehending  danger  and  reporting  to  them  that  Branford  went  op 
in  arms  hastening  to  their  relief  at  Guilford,  which  the  govemcM' 
required  with  speed.    Hereupon  New  Haven  was  alslo  alarmed  that 
night  by  beating  the  drum  to  warn  the  town  militia  to  be  ready. 
This  fear  was  not  causeless,  for  what  else  could  be  gathered  from 
the  preparations  of  pistols,  bullets,  swords,  &c.,  which  they  brought 
with  them,  and  the  threatening  speeches  given  out  by  some   of 
them,  as  is  attested  by  the  depositions  of  some  and  subscriptions  of 
others,  which  we  have  by  us  to  show  when  need  requires ;  and  your 
two  magistrates  themselves,  who  ought  to  have  kept  the  king's 
peace  among  their  own  party,  and  in  their  own  speeches,  threatened 
our  governor  that  if  any  thing  was  done  against  those  men,  viz., 
Rossiter  and  his  party,  Connecticut  would  take  it  as  done  against 
themselves,  for  they  were  bound  to  protect  them." 

Although  it  was  so  late  in  the  evening  when  the 
** honored  gentlemen*'  from  Hartford  arrived*  in  Guil- 
ford, the  following  correspondence  passed  between 
them  and  Gov.  Leete  :  — 

"  Guilford,  Dec.  30,  1663. 

"  Worthy  Sir,  —  After  the  presentation  of  our  service  to  your- 
self, you  may  please  to  understand  that  we  underwritten,  being  a 
committee  authorized  by  the  Council  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut, 
do  desire  that  yourself  would  be  pleased  to  give  us  a  meeting  to- 
morrow about  nine  of  the  clock,  to  treat  of  such  things  as  present 
concernments  do  require. 

"  Sir,  we  desire  your  answer  by  the  bearer. 

**  Yours,  Samuel  Wyllys. 

John  Allyn. 
James  Richards. 
Wait  Winthrop- 
"  These  for  Wm,  Leete,  Esquire,  at  his  house  in  Guilford^'' 

*  At  a  general  court  for  New  Haven,  Dec.  31,  1663,  "Mr.  Jones 
acquainted  the  toiiVTi  ^ith  the  business  of  Guilford  the  last  night,  and  how 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT  503 

"  Guilford,  Dec  30,  1663. 

"  Honored  Gentlemen,  —  My  answer  sent  before  by  Jonathan 
Gilbert  was  in  earnest,  to  let  you  know  my  true  capacity  and 
resolution,  from  which  I  cannot  recede,  and  rest, 

"Yours  in  what  I  may, 

"William  Leete. 

''For  Mr,    Wyllys,  Mr,  John  Allyn,  Mr,  Richards^  Mr,  Wait 
Winthrop:' 

The  record  of  a  general  court,  occasioned  by  the 
visit  of  the  Connecticut  gentlemen  to  Guilford,  which 
was  held  at  New.  Haven,  Jan.  7,  i66i,  indicates  that 
though  Leete  refused  to  give  them  audience,  they  had 
at  least  some  informal  conference  with  him  in  regard  to 
the  Declaration  lately  published  by  New  Haven.  The 
record  is  as  follows  :  viz.,  — 

"  The  publishing  of  the  former  Declaration  at  Guilford  occa- 
sioned Mr.  Rossiter  and  his  son  to  go  up  to  Connecticut,  and  there 
obtain  two  of  their  magistrates,  marshal,  and  sundry  others  to  . 
come  down  to  Guilford  on  the  30th  of  December  last ;  who  coming 
into  the  town  at  an  unseasonable  time  of  night,  their  party,  by 
shooting  off  sundry  guns,  caused  the  town  to  be  alarmed  unto  great 
disturbance,  and  some  of  them  giving  out  threatening  speeches, 
which  caused  the  governor  to  send  away  speedily  to  Branford 
and  New  Haven  for  help,  which  caused  both  those  towns  to  be 
alarmed  also  to  great  disturbance,  the  same  night,  which  caused 
sending  of  men  both  from  New  Haven  and  Branford.  Now,  for 
the  gaining  of  a  right  understanding  of  the  business,  and  to  consider 
what  to  do  upon  this  and  the  like  accounts,  occasioned  the  calling 
of  this  court,  though  the  weather  proved  very  unseasonable. 

"  But  the  Court  being  met  together  (so  many  of  them  as  could 
possibly  stayX  the  governor  related  the  whole  business  to  the  best 
of  his  remembrance;  and  among  other  things  he  informed  the 

they  had  sent  away  six  troopers  to  see  what  the  matter  is,  but  ordered 
them  not  to  provoke,  neither  by  word  nor  action,  but  to  keep  the  peace." 


\. 


504  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

Court  that  those  gentlemen  of  Connecticut,  that  came  down  with 
Mr.  Rossiter  and  his  son,  did  earnestly  desire  that  there  might  be 
at  least  a  suspension  of  the  execution  of  that  Declaration  till  there 
might  be  another  conference  betwixt  them  and  us,  wherein  they 
hoped  matters  might  come  to  a  more  comfortable  issue ;  and  they 
very  earnestly  pressed  for  such  a  thing,  urging  how  dangerous  the 
contrary  might  be,  for  they  said  that  what  we  did  to  those  men 
whom  they  had  admitted,  they  must  take  it  as  done  to  Connecticut 
colony.  Therefore  he  now  desired  to  know  the  mind  of  the  Court, 
whether  they  would  yield  to  them  so  far  or  no ;  but  the  Court,  con- 
sidering how  fruitless  all  former  treaties  had  been,  and  that  they 
had  formerly  ordered  that  there  should  be  no  more  treaty  with 
them  unless  they  first  restore  us  those  members  which  they  had 
so  unrighteously  taken  from  us,  therefore  did  now  again  confirm 
the  same,  and  in  the  issue  came  to  this  conclusion :  to  desire  Mr. 
Davenport  and  Mr.  Street  to  draw  up  in  writing  all  our  grievances, 
and  then,  with  the  approbation  of  as  many  of  the  committee  as 
could  come  together,  to  send  it  to  Connecticut  unto  their  General 
Assembly,  which  accordingly  was  done  in  March  next,  which 
writing  you  have  recorded  after  the  conclusions  of  this  Court  with 
arguments  annexed  and  sundry  testimonies  both  from  Guilford 
and  Stamford. 

"  Then  it  was  also  propounded,  whether  this  Court  would  con- 
firm the  former  Declaration  sent  forth  by  the  magistrates,  which 
was  by  vote  concluded." 

The  writing  which  Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Street 
were  requested  to  draw  up,  was  entitled  "  New  Haven's 
Case  Stated."  Under  this  title  it  may  be  found  in 
Appendix  No.  VII.,  and  with  it  a  draught  of  an  answer 
in  the  handwriting  of  the  secretary  of  Connecticut. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  any  answer  was  ever  for- 
warded to  New  Haven.  In  the  opinion  of  Hollister, 
"good  judgment  was  shown  in  abstaining  from  an 
attempt  to  answer  it."  Hollister  says,  "  In  all  our  New 
England  colonial  papers,   I   have  not  found  a  more 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT.  $05 

touching  and  eloquent  narrative,  nor  have  I  ever  seen  a 
more  convincing  argument."  Before  this  plea  of  New 
Haven  reached  Hartford,  the  Council  of  Connecticut 
had  appointed  another  committee  to.  go  to  Guilford  and 
New  Haven.  From  a  note  inserted  in  their  instruc- 
tions it  appears  that  Gov.  Winthrop  was  to  precede 
them,  and  make  in  person  such  preparation  as  he  could, 
for  their  success.     These  are  their  instructions  :  viz.,  — 

"It  is  agreed  by  the  Council,  that  if  our  honored  friends  of 
New  Haven,  Guilford,  Branford,  Milford,  and  Stamford,  will  treat 
with  us  for  an  accommodation,  then  we  will  grant  and  confirm  to 
them  all  such  privileges  as  they  shall  desire,  which  are  not  repug- 
nant to  the  tenor  of  our  charter. 

"(This  following  particular  is  not  to  be  put  in  execution  before 
we  hear  what  our  honored  governor  and  the  rest  effect  there.) 

**  But  if  they  will  not  treat  with  us  and  agree  for  their  settlement, 
then  they  are  hereby  ordered  to  read  the  charter  at  a  public  meet- 
ing (if  they  can  attain  it),  and  to  declare  that  we  expect  their  sub- 
mission to  his  Majesty^s  order  therein  contained;  and  also,  to 
commission  those  now  in  place  to  govern  the  people  there  accord- 
ing to  law  until  further  order  be  taken,  and  to  draw  up  a  declara- 
tion which  shall  be  publicly  made  known  to  the  people,  whereby 
they  may  be  informed  what  rational  and  Christianlike  propositions 
have  been  made  to  the  gentlemen  there,  in  several  treaties  for  the 
settlement  of  their  and  our  union." 

The  correspondence  between  the  committees  of  the 
two  colonies  which  has  been  preserved  is  as  follows : 
viz.,  — 

'*  24th  12  m.,  1663  [24th  February,  i66|]. 

"Gentlemen, —  In  order  to  treaty  we  propound  as  a  necessary 
expedient  that  you  redintegrate  our  colony  by  restoring  our  mem- 
bers at  Stamford  and  Guilford,  that  the  confederation  may  be 
repaired  and  preserved ;  then  we  have  power  from  our  general 
court  to  treat  with  you  and  to  settle  agreement,  according  to  God, 


506  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

m 

between  your  colony  and  ours,  for  future  peace  between  us,  for 
ourselves  and  our  posterity  mutually,  which  we  shall  readily  attend 
upon  our  receipt  of  your  positive  consent  to  the  premises  testified 
by  your  joint  subscription  thereunto,  being  made  an  authentical  act. 

"William  Leete, 
Matthew  Gilbert, 
William  Jones, 
Benjamin  Fenn. 
Jasper  Crane, 
Robert  Treat." 

"Gentli^men,  —  In  answer  to  your  proposals,  and  as  an  expe- 
dient for  the  promoting  of  peace,  we  propound  as  followeth :  — 

"  I.  In  reference  to  your  dissatisfactions  respecting  divers  per- 
sons of  Guilford  and  Stamford,  and  to  prevent  divisions  in  those 
plantations,  it  is  agreed  that  they  be  ordered  to  submit  to  the  same 
authority  with  their  neighbors  in  those  places. 

"2.  It  is  agreed  that  all  the  elected  officers  in  New  Haven,  Guil- 
ford, Milford,  Branford,  be  hereby  authorized  to  administer  justice 
to  the  people  in  those  plantations  according  to  law,  and  the  people 
to  choose  new  officers  at  New  Haven  at  their  usual  time  for  that 
purpose  for  the  management  of  their  affairs  within  those  planta- 
tions, with  due  caution  that  our  patent  be  no  way  violated  thereby. 

"  3.  That  all  motions  or  occasions  tending  to  obstruct  further 

union  be  carefully  shunned,  and  that  all  past  grievances  be  buried, 

upon  a  penalty  on  any  that  shall  revive  them. 

"  4.  And  that  it  be  referred  to  the  prudent  consideration  of  those 

in  place  of  authority,  both  in  Church  and  Commonwealth,  to  think 

of  accommodations  most  conducible  to  the  settlement  of  religion 

and  righteousness  upon  the  firmest  basis  of  peace,  truth,  and  unity, 

for  the  benefit  of  posterity ;  and  that  some  suitable  persons  do  meet 

to  that  purpose,  when  either  the  much-honored  Mr.  Winthrop  or 

Mr.  Leete  shall  judge  it  a  fit  season,  that  so  brotherly  amity  may 

be  propagated  to  future  ages. 

"Samuel  Wyllys, 

Henry  Wolcott, 

John  Allyn, 

James  Richards. 

"  Feb.  25,  1665.". 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  CONNECTICUT.  SO/ 

**  Gentlemen,  —  As  to  your  first  article  in  your  paper  sent  us, 

we  query  whether  it  be  an  authentic  act  as  done  by  you,  or  not,  till 

it  be  confirmed  by  your  General  Assembly;   which,  if  it  be,  we 

desire  that  you  do  signify  so  much  under  your  hands,  as  also  that 

they  are  positively  restored  to  this  jurisdiction  by  virtue  thereof. 

William  Leete, 

"  In  the  name  of  the  rest  of  the  magistrates* 
"  Feb.  25,  1663." 

"Gentlemen,  —  In  answer  to  yours  we  return  that  we  are 
ready  to  make  authentic  what  we  have  proposed  to  you,  if  you 
please  to  treat  with  us  as  they  are  propounded. 

"John  Allyn, 
**  In  the  name  of  the  Committee. 

"We  expect  your  answer,  whether  you  please  thus  to  treat  with 
us  or  not." 


A  little  yielding  on  either  side  in  this  crisis  might 
have  led  on  to  negotiation.  If  Connecticut  had  or- 
dered those  who  revolted  to  her  from  New  Haven  "  to 
submit  to  the  same  authority  with  their  neighbors," 
the  New  Haven  committee  were  bound  by  promise  to 
negotiate,  but  not  bound  thereby  to  give  up  her  existence 
as  a  distinct  colony.  Some  of  her  people  would,  per- 
haps, have  been  willing  to  do  so ;  but  there  were  others 
who  would  never  have  consented  to  any  arrangement 
which  would  annul  the  fundamental  law  of  New  Haven 
concerning  suffrage.  Davenport,  the  champion  of  this 
party,  writes  a  few  days  after  the  above-written  corre- 
spondence :  "  The  premises  being  duly  weighed,  it  will 
be  your  wisdom  and  way  to  desist  wholly  and  forever 
from  endeavoring  to  draw  us  into  a  union  under  your 
patent."  But  New  Haven,  however  divided  on  the 
question  of  uniting  with  Connecticut,  was  unanimous 


508  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

in  refusing  to  treat  till  she  was  redintegrated  and 
acknowledged  as  a  distinct  colony.  If  Connecticut  had 
fully  believed  that  by  retracting  she  could  set  in 
motion  measures  which  would  result  in  the  absorption 
of  New  Haven,  she  might  have  sacrificed  to  the  pride 
of  her  sister  colony  the  required  punctilio.  But  fearing 
that  that  party  whose  desire  was,  "  that  we  may  for  the 
future  live  in  love  and  peace  together  as  distinct  neigh- 
bor colonies,  as  we  did  above  twenty  years  together 
before  you  received  and  misunderstood  and  so  abused 
your  patent,"  might  become  masters  of  the  situation, 
she  would  not  otherwise  than  conditionally  retract  what 
she  had  done. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

NEW   HAVEN    SUBMITS. 

THE  negotiation  between  the  two  colonies  was  thus 
in  dead-lock,  when,  "  at  the  close  of  a  long  sum- 
mer day,  as  the  sabbath  stillness  in  Boston  was  begin- 
ning, two  ships  of  war  —  the  Guinea,  carrying  thirty-six 
guns,  and  the  Elias,  carrying  thirty  —  came  to  anchor 
off  Long  Wharf.  They  were  the  first  vessels  of  the 
royal  navy  that  had  ever  been  seen  in  that  harbor. 
Officers  went  on  board,  and  brought  back  intelligence 
to  the  town,  that  the  ships  had  sailed  ten  weeks  before 
from  England,  in  company  with  two  others,  —  the 
Martin,  of  sixteen  guns,  and  the  William  and  Nicholas, 
of  ten,  —  from  which  they  had  parted  a  week  or  two 
before  in  bad  weather ;  and  that  the  fleet  conveyed 
three  or  four  hundred  troops,  and  four  persons  charged 
with  public  business.  These  were  Col.  Richard  Nicolls, 
Sir  Robert  Carr,  Col.  George  Cartwright,  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Maverick."  »  The  other  vessels  had  anchored 
at  Portsmouth  three  days  earlier. 

The  arrival  of  these  royal  commissioners  brought  to 
a  speedy  issue  the  controversy  between  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven.  They  were  instructed  to  require  the 
colonies  to  assist  in  reducing  under  English  authority 

«  Palfrey. 

509 


5IO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

all  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Dutch,  the  king  claim- 
ing it  as  of  right  belonging  to  the  English  and  .bestowing 
it  on  his  brother  the  Duke  of  York  As  the  territory 
thus  granted  was  to  be  bounded  on  the  east  by  the 
Connecticut  River,  New  Haven  experienced  a  sudden 
change  of  heart  toward  Connecticut,  preferring  to  sub- 
mit to  her  jurisdiction  rather  than  be  subjected  to  the 
rule  of  a  man  who  was  a  royalist,  a  Romanist,  and  a 
Stuart. 

Connecticut  was  also  alarmed,  or  else  feigned  to 
be,  at  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners.  As  soon  as 
possible  she  sent  a  delegation  to  New  Haven  to  per- 
suade her  loving  friends  there  to  come  under  the  Win- 
throp  charter  in  order  to  avoid  a  common  danger. 
These  delegates,  one  of  whom  had  recently  been  in 
Boston,  alleged,  moreover,  that  the  leading  men  of 
Massachusetts  earnestly  desired  that  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven  should  come  to  an  agreement,  as  it  had 
been  ascertained  that  the  commissioners  had  instruc- 
tions to  take  advantage  of  disputes  between  colonies 
as  well  as  of  every  other  expedient  for  reducing  all 
New  England  under  the  immediate  government  of  the 
king. 

In  less  than  three  weeks  after  the  arrival  of  the 
commissioners.  Gov.  Leete  assembled  his  Court  at  New 
Haven. 

"  The  governor  acquainted  them  with  the  occasion  of  this  Court, 
that  there  had  Mr.  Whiting  and  Lieut.  Bull  of  Hartford  been 
lately  with  most  of  the  magistrates,  and  brought  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Wyllys  to  Mr.  Jones ;  and  they  signified  that  Mr.  Whiting  being 
lately  in  the  Bay,  and  having  speech  with  many  friends  there,  he  was 
hastened  away  by  them  to  communicate  matters  above  at  Connecti- 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS.  5 1 1 

cut,  and  also  to  us,  showing  themselves  very  sensible  of  danger  of 
detriment  to  the  country  by  reason  of  any  differences  between  the 
colonies,  now  the  king's  commissioners  were  come  over;  and  they 
looked  upon  this  difference  of  ours  with  Connecticut  to  be  the 
greatest,  and  therefore  they  declared  that  they  were  sent  to  this 
purpose,  and  declared  this  to  be  the  advice  of  the  best  part  in  the 
Bay,  though  they  had  no  letter,  that  this  difference  be  made  up 
betwixt  us,  being  very  sensible  of  danger  to  all  by  this  means,  and 
therefore  they  judge  this  the  best  way  for  all  our  safety,  to  stand 
for  the  liberties  of  our  patents,  and  so  Connecticut  and  they  would 
have  us  to  join  with  them  upon  that  account,  for  they  conceive  a 
great  advantage  given  to  the  commissioners  by  our  standing  off. 
Now  we  told  them,  for  our  parts,  we  could  do  nothing  in  it  our- 
selves, but  after  much  debate  and  urging  we  signified  to  them  thus 
much :  that  if  Connecticut  would  come  and  assert  their  claim  to  us 
in  the  king's  authority,  and  would  secure  what  at  any  time  they 
had  propounded  to  us,  and  would  engage  to  stand  to  uphold  the 
liberties  of  their  patent,  we  would  call  the  General  Court  together 
that  they  may  consider  of  it,  and  be  ready  to  give  them  an  answer, 
and  said  for  our  parts,  we  did  not  know  but  we  might  bow  before 
it,  if  they  assert  it  and  make  it  good.  They  urged  to  have  some- 
thing from  us  as  grounds  of  certainty  that  we  would  so  do,  but  we 
told  them  that  we  would  not  do  sa  Now  the  Court  was  desired 
to  consider  of  it,  what  answer  should  be  given  if  they  should  so 
come.  Much  debate  there  was  upon  it,  and  something  pleaded 
upon  the  danger  of  standing  as  now  we  are,  if  the  king's  commis- 
sioners come  amongst  us ;  much  also  was  said  by  some  against, 
and  declared  that  they  see  no  reason  of  such  a  motion,  making 
that  a  question  to  be  answered  before  we  knew  it  would  be 
put  to  us ;  also  that  there  had  not  been  a  full  summons  to  all  the 
plantations  for  this  General  Court ;  also  it  was  questioned  whether 
the  General  Court,  if  it  were  full,  had  any  power  to  deliver  up  the 
colony  state  without  the  consent  of  the  whole  body  of  freemen 
at  least.  But  notwithstanding  all  that  was  said,  it  came  to  a  vote 
as  followeth :  that  if  Connecticut  do  come  down  and  assert  their 
right  to  us  by  virtue  of  their  charter,  and  require  us  in  his  Majes- 
ty's name  to  submit  to  their  government,  that  then  it  be  declared 
to  them  that  we  do  submit,  referring  all  arguments  between  us  to 
the  final  issue  of  the  commissioners  of  our  confederates. 


512  HISTORY  OF  NEW  II A  VEX  COLOMV. 

"The  vote  passed  in  the  affirmative;  but  after  the  vote 
passed  there  appeared  some  dissatisfaction,  and  there  was  further 
advice  and  consideration  taken  in  the  case,  and  much  was  said 
that  it  was  necessary  the  freemen  should  be  acquainted  with 
it,  and  in  the  issue  came  to  another  vote,  which  was  this :  That 
if  they  of  Connecticut  come  and  make  a  claim  upon  us  in  his 
Majesty *s  name  and  by  virtue  of  their  charter,  then  we  shall  sub- 
mit to  them  until  the  commissioners  of  the  colonies  do  meet ;  and 
so  the  governor,  the  deputy-governor,  and  magistrates,  or  so  many 
of  them  as  can  be  got  together,  were  appointed  to  give  the  answer 
to  Connecticut  men  if  tliey  come." 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies  in  September,  Connecticut  protested 
against  the  admission  of  Messrs.  Leete  and  Jones  as 
Commissioners  for  New  Haven  colony,  "because  it 
doth  not  appear  that  they  are  a  colony,  or  have  any 
power  of  government  distinct  from  us,  confirmed  by 
regal  authority.'*  The  dispute  being  thus  brought 
before  them,  the  representatives  of  Massachusetts  and 
Plymouth  declared  "that  as  the  occasion  thereof  was 
acted  without  their  cognizance,  and  the  grounds  not 
being  fully  known  to  them,  they  could,  as  to  the  right 
of  the  cause,  add  nothing  to  what  was  passed  by  the 
commissioners  at  their  meeting  in  1663 :  yet,  consid- 
ering how  much  the  honor  of  God  as  well  as  the  weal 
of  all  the  colonies,  as  themselves  therein  interested, 
are  concerned  in  the  issue,  they  heartily  and  affection- 
ately commended  such  a  compliance  between  them,  that 
the  sad  consequences  which  would  inevitably  follow 
upon  their  further  contentions  might  be  prevented." 

"  At  a  general  court  of  the  freemen  of  the  jurisdiction  held  at 
New  Haven,  Sept  14,  1664,  the  governor  acquainted  them  with 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS,  5 1 3 

the  occashon  of  calling  them  together  at  this  time,  and  that  was 
something  they  had  met  withal  lately  at  the  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners at  Hartford,  as  in  the  writings  may  appear,  which 
writings  that  concerned  us  were  all  now  read,  with  a  letter  also 
subscribed  by  Mr.  Samuel  Wyllys  and  Mr.  John  Allyn,  directed  to 
James  Bishop,  to  be  communicated  to  this  Assembly.  The  gov- 
ernor further  said  that  it  was  a  season  to  advise  and  consider 
together  in  wh^t  state  it  is  best  for  us  to  appear  when  the  commis- 
sioners from  England  come  to  visit  us,  whether  in  the  state  we 
now  are,  or  under  a  regal  stamp  (as  they  call  it),  in  joining  with 
Connecticut.  There  was  much  debate,  and  divers  spake  that  to 
stand  as  God  hath  kept  us  hitherto  is  our  best  way;  but  some 
desired  to  understand  the  vote  of  the  last  General  Court,  so  the 
secretary  went  home  to  fetch  it,  and  in  the  mean  space,  while  he 
was  gone,  the  assembly  was  broken  up,  and  no  more  done  at  this 
time." 

The  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  met  in  Octo- 
ber, and  passed  the  following  order :  — 

"  This  Court  desires  and  appoints  Mr.  Sheartnan  and  the  secre- 
tary to  go  to  New  Haven,  &c.,  and  by  order  from  this  Court,  in  his 
Majesty's  name,  to  require  all  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven, 
Milford,  Branford,  Guilford,  and  Stamford  to  submit  to  the  gov- 
ernment here  established  by  his  Majesty's  gracious  grant  to  this 
colony,  and  to  take  their  answer.  And  they  are  hereby  authorized 
to  declare  all  the  present  freemen  of  New  Haven,  Milford,  Bran- 
ford,  Guilford,  and  Stamford,  that  are  qualified  according  to  law, 
to  be  freemen  of  this  corporation,  so  many  of  them  as  shall  accept 
of  the  same  and  take  the  freemen's  oath.  And  they  are  hereby 
authorized  to  make  as  many  freemen  as  they  shall  by  sufficient 
testimony  find  qualified  according  to  order  of  court,  in  that  respect, 
and  to  administer  the  oath  of  freedom  to  them. 

"  They  are  also  to  declare  that  this  Court  doth  invest  William 
Leete,  Esquire,  William  Jones,  Esquire,  Mr.  Gilbert,  Mr.  Fenn,  Mr. 
Crane,  Mr.  Treat,  and  Mr.  Law,  with  magistratical  power,  to  assist 
in  the  government  of  those  plantations  and  the  people  thereof, 
according  to  the  laws  of  this  corporation,  or  so  many  of  their  own 


514  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

laws  and  orders  as  are  not  contradictory  to  the  tenor  of  our  charter, 
until  May  next ;  and  if  any  of  these  above-named  refuse  to  accept 
to  govern  the  people  as  aforesaid,  then  Mr.  Shearman  and  the 
secretary  are  hereby  authorized  to  appoint  some  other  fit  persons 
in  their  room,  and  to  administer  an  oath  to  them  for  the  faithful 
execution  of  the  trust  conunitted  to  them." 

For  some  reason  Mr.  Richards  was  desired  to  go  in 
place  of  Mr.  Shearman  to  Stamford,  where,  Mr.  Law 
having  been  won  over,  they  found  no  great  difficulty  in 
persuading  the  town  to  submit.  The  committee  origin- 
ally appointed  visited  Milford  on  the  17th  of  November, 
where  they  issued  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  all  house- 
holders, as  follows :  — 

"  These  are  in  his  Majesty's  name  to  will  and  require  jrou  forth- 
with to  warn  all  the  inhabitants  at  your  town  of  Milford,  being 
householders,  to  meet  at  the  meeting-house  this  day  about  one  of 
the  clock,  to  attend  such  occasions  with  Mr.  Shearman  and  myself, 
as  are  given  us  in  charge  by  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut ; 
whereof  fail  not.  John  Allyn,  Secretary^"* 

"  To  Joseph  Waters^  to  execute^'* 

The  people  of  Milford,  assembling  in  response  to  this 
call,  voted  to  submit  to  Connecticut.  "  No  one  person 
voted  against  it." 

On  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  Mr.  Shearman  and 
Secretary  Allyn  were  present  at  a  town-meeting  in 
New  Haven,  where  Mr.  Jones,  who  at  the  election  in 
May  had  been  chosen  deputy-governor,  and  was  there- 
fore moderator  of  the  plantation  court,  "acquainted  the 
town  that  the  occasion  of  the  meeting  was  that  there 
were  some  gentlemen  from  Connecticut  that  had  some- 
thing to  acquaint  the  town  withal,  and  he  thought  the 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS.  5 1 5 

business  in  general  was  to  require  our  submission  to 
Connecticut,  with  some  other  propositions.  He  further 
minded  the  town  of  the  peace  and  unity  that  God  had 
hitherto  continued  amongst  us,  and  the  many  blessings 
both  on  the  right  hand  and  left  that  we  enjoyed  under 
this  government ;  and  also  told  the  town  that  we  are  a 
people  in  combination  with  others,  and  therefore  could 
not  give  a  full  answer  without  first  acquainting  the 
other  plantations,  and  then  that  we  ourselves  were  not 
a  full  meeting  of  the  town,  divers  of  the  farms  having 
not  warning.  But,  the  gentlemen  being  come  in,  Mr. 
Jones  desired  to  see  their  commission.  They  declared 
that  they  should  show  it  to  persons  deputed,  but  after, 
read  it,  and  then  declared  what  they  had  to  say  to  the 
town.  The  persons  were  Mr.  John  Allyn  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Shearman.  These  gentlemen  urged  to  have 
the  matter  put  to  vote,  but  they  were  told  that  the 
town-meeting  was  not  full.  But  Mr.  Allyn  said  that  if 
Mr.  Shearman  did  consent,  which  he  thought  he  would, 
he  should  take  the  boldness  to  put  it  to  vote  himself; 
but  his  speech  was  disliked,  and  after,  witnessed  against, 
and  they  were  desired  to  withdraw  awhile,  and  the 
town  would  consider  to  give  them  an  answer ;  and  so 
they  did,  and  the  town  considering  of  it  came  to  this 
conclusion  as  their  present  answer  by  a  general  vote, 
only  one  dissenting,  which  answer  follows  their  decla- 
ration. The  gentlemen  aforesaid  being  called  in  again, 
the  answer  was  read  to  them.  They  desired  a  copy  of 
it ;  which  was  granted,  they  leaving  a  copy  of  what 
they  had  declared,  which  they  promised,  and  is  here 
inserted  as  followeth." 
The  declaration  of  the  Connecticut  committee  was 


5l6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

in  accordance  with  their  instructions.  The  answer  of 
the  New  Haven  town-meeting,  though  not  preserved, 
was  doubtless  substantially  what  the  moderator  had 
already  stated ;  viz.,  that  submission  to  such  a  demand 
must  come  from  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  and  not 
from  its  several  plantations. 

The  committee  visited  also  Branford  and  Guilford, 
where  the  answers  they  received  to  their  requirement 
of  submission  were  in  accordance  with  that  of  New 
Haven. 

Submission  to  Connecticut  was  now  the  manifest 
destiny  of  New  Haven,  and  the  only  remaining  ques- 
tion respected  the  mode.  The  royal  commissioners 
had  obliterated  the  Dutch  power  in  America,  and  New 
Haven  was  included  in  the  territory  given  to  the  Duke 
of  York.  A  "distinct  colony  state  "  being  out  of  the 
question,  the  best  practicable  condition  was  to  become  a 
part  of  Connecticut.  The  course  of  events  had  at  last 
brought  all  but  a  very  few  to  this  conclusion.  How- 
ever strongly  they  were  attached  to  the  peculiarities  of 
their  colony,  including,  as  most  important  of  all,  its 
limitation  of  suffrage,  and  however  deeply  offended  with 
the  insult  their  colony  had  received  from  Connecticut, 
they  saw  that  submission  was  a  necessity.  If  there 
were  a  few  who  still  desired  "  to  stand  as  God  hath 
kept  us  hitherto,"  they  were,  since  the  reduction  of 
New  Netherlands,  so  few  that  nothing  could  be  accom- 
plished. All  that  the  leading  men  now  hoped  for  was 
that  the  colony  might  die  decently.  Not  consenting 
that  the  plantations  should  separately  transfer  alle- 
giance, they  required  that  the  General  Court  of  the 
jurisdiction  should  assemble  and  vote  its  submission. 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS,  5 1  / 

If  any  thing  was  wanting  to  bring  the  last  man  to 
despair  of  maintaining  a  distinct  colony  state,  it  was  a 
formal  determination  by  the  royal  commissioners  of  the 
boundary  between  Connecticut  and  New  York.  If 
New  Haven  was  in  Connecticut,  the  distinct  colony  of 
New  Haven  was  at  an  end  ;  but  the  other  alternative 
was  worse. 

Winthrop  with  several  associates  had  been  appointed 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  at  their  ses- 
sion in  October,  to  go  to  New  York,  "  to  congratulate 
his  Majesty's  Honorable  Commissioners."  They  were 
empowered,  "  if  an  opportunity  offer  itself  that  they  can 
issue  the  bounds  between  the  Duke's  patent  and  ours, 
so  as  in  their  judgment  may  be  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Court,  to  attend  the  same."  Winthrop  had  been 
present  with  the  Commissioners,  and  rendered  them 
important  aid,  in  negotiating  the  surrender  of  New 
Amsterdam  in  the  preceding  August ;  but  still  further 
to  prepare  the  way  for  an  issue  that  would  be  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Court,  an  order  had  been  passed 
"  that  Col.  Nicolls  and  the  rest  of  the  Commissioners 
be  presented  with  four  hundred  bushels  of  corn  as  a 
present  from  this  colony." 

The  decision  of  the  Commissioners  was  rendered  on 
the  thirtieth  day  of  November.  After  assigning  Long 
Island,  which  Connecticut  claimed  as  one  of  the  "adja- 
cent islands,"  mentioned  in  her  charter,  to  his  Royal 
Highness  the  Duke  of  York,  they  proceeded  to  declare 
**  that  the  creek  or  river  called  Momoronock,  which  is 
reputed  to  be  about  twelve  miles  to  the  east  of  West 
Chester,  and  a  line  drawn  from  the  east  point  or  side, 
where  the  fresh  water  falls  into  the  salt  at  high-water 


5l8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

mark,  north-north-west,  to  the  line  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, be  the  western  bounds  of  the  said  colony  of  Con- 
necticut ;  and  all  plantations  lying  westward  of  that 
creek  and  line  so  drawn  to  be  under  his  Royal  High- 
nesses government,  and  all  plantations  lying  eastward 
of  that  creek  and  line  to  be  under  the  government  of 
Connecticut." 

Thirteen  days  after  this  authoritative  determination 
of  the  western  boundary  of  Connecticut,  the  Jurisdic- 
tion of  New  Haven  held  its  last  general  court.  "  The 
freemen  of  New  Haven,  Guilford,  Branford,  and  part  of 
Milford,  and  as  many  of  the  inhabitants  as  were  pleased 
to  come,'*  assembled  to  put  an  end  to  their  distinct 
colony  state,  by  submission  to  Connecticut. 

"The  governor  acquainted  them  with  the  occasion  of  calling 
them  together ;  and  that  is,  some  of  Connecticut  gentlemen  having 
made  demand  of  our  submission  to  their  government,  in  his 
Majesty's  name,  the  answers  of  these  three  towns  were  with  prom- 
ise of  further  answer  when  they  should  consider  of  the  matter 
together;  and  therefore  to  set  their  thoughts  a-work  about  it, 
something  was  propounded  to  them  and  left  with  them  to  consider 
of  till  the  morning. 

"In  the  morning,  the  assembly  being  come  together,  the  gov- 
ernor propounded  to  know  what  was  the  issue  of  their  thoughts  in 
the  business  left  with  them.  After  some  debate,  the  answer  was 
drawn  up  in  writing,  and  read,  and  after  serious  consideration  put 
to  vote,  and  so  was  concluded  with  universal  consent,  not  any  one 
opposing. 

"  The  vote  of  the  freemen  and  other  inhabitants  of  the  colony  met  together 
at  New  Haverty  the  ijth  of  December ^  '6^,  in  answer  to  what  Mr.  ydhn 
Allyn  and  Mr.  Samuel  Shearman  declared  in  our  several  towns  in 
November  last  as  followeth :  — 

"I.  First  that  by  this  act  or  vote  we  be  not  understood  to 
justify  Connecticut's  former  actings,  nor  any  thing  disorderly  done 
by  our  own  people  upon  such  a9C0unts. 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS.  5 1 9 

"2.  That  by  it  we  be  not  apprehended  to  have  any  hand  in 
breaking  or  dissolving  the  confederation. 

**  Yet  in  testimony  of  our  loyalty  to  the  king's  Majesty,  when 
an  authentic  copy  of  the  determination  of  his  Commissioners  is 
published  to  be  recorded  with  us,  if  thereby  it  shall  appear  to  our 
committee  that  we  are  by  his  Majesty's  authority  now  put  under 
Connecticut  patent,  we  shall  submit,  as  from  a  necessity  brought 
upon  us  by  their  means  of  Connecticut  aforesaid,  but  with  a  salvo 
jure  of  our  former  right  and  claim,  as  a  people  who  have  not  yet 
been  heard  in  point  of  plea." 

A  committee  having  been  appointed  for  consummat- 
ing matters  with  Connecticut,  and  the  following  letter 
having  been  read  and  approved,  it  was  sent  to  the 
authorities  of  Connecticut  with  the  aforesaid  vote. 

"  Honored  Gentlemen, —  We  having  been  silent  hitherto  as 
to  the  making  of  any  grievance  known  unto  the  king's  commis- 
sioners, notwithstanding  what  may  be  with  us  of  such  nature  from 
the  several  transactions  that  have  been  amongst  us,  are  desirous 
so  to  continue  the  managing  of  these  affairs  in  ways  consistent 
with  the  ancient  confederation  of  the  United  Colonies,  choosing 
rather  to  suffer  than  to  begin  any  motion  hazardful  to  New  Eng- 
land settlements.  In  pursuance  whereof  (according  to  our  prom- 
ise to  your  gentlemen  sent  lately  to  demand  our  submission, 
though  in  a  divided  if  not  dividing  way,  within  our  towns  severally 
seeking  to  bring  us  under  the  government  by  yourselves  already 
settled,  wherein  we  have  had  no  hand  to  settle  the  same,  and  before 
you  had  cleared  to  our  conviction  the  certain  limits  of  your  charter, 
which  may  justly  increase  the  scruple  of  too  much  haste  in  that 
and  former  actings  upon  us),  the  generality  of  our  undivided 
people  have  orderly  met  this  13th  of  December,  1664,  and  by  the 
vote  enclosed  have  prepared  for  this  answer,  to  be  given,  of  our 
submission,  which  being  done  by  us,  then  for  the  accommodating 
of  matters  betwixt  us  in  amicable  wise,  by  a  committee  empowered 
to  issue  with  you  on  their  behalf  and  in  the  behalf  of  all  con- 
cerned, according  to  instructions  given  to  the  said  committee. 
We  never  did  nor  ever  do  intend  to  damnify  your  moral  rights  or 


520  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

just  privilege,  consistent  with  our  like  honest  enjoyment,  and  we 
would  hope  that  you  have  no  further  scope  towards  us,  not  to 
violate  our  covenant  interest,  but  to  accommodate  us  with  that  we 
shall  desire  and  the  patent  bear,  as  hath  been  often  said  you  would 
do.  And  surely  you  have  the  more  reason  to  be  full  with  us 
herein,  seeing  that  your  success  for  patent  bounds  with  those 
gentlemen  now  obtained,  seems  to  be  debtor  to  our  silence  before 
them,  whenas  you  thus  by  single  application  and  audience  issued 
that  matter.  You  thus  performing  to  satisfaction,  we  may  still 
rest  silent,  and  according  to  profession  by  a  studious  and  cordial 
endeavor  with  us'  to  advance  the  interest  of  Christ  in  this  wilder- 
ness and  by  the  Lord's  blessing  thereupon,  love  and  union  be- 
tween us  may  be  greatly  confirmed  and  all  our  comforts  enlarged ; 
which  is  the  earnest  prayer  of,  gentlemen,  your  loving  friends  and 
neighbors, 

"  The  Committee  appointed  by  the  freemen  and  inhabitants  of  New 
Haven  colony  now  assembled, 

"  <^  James  Bishop,  Secretary, 
"  New  Haven,  Dec  14,  1664." 

The  submission  of  New  Haven  was  an  unqualified 
triumph  for  Connecticut.  There  had  been  a  time 
when  she  would  have  modified  the  qualifications  for 
suffrage,  and  made  them  as  nearly  conformable  to  those 
in  New  Haven  as  the  home  government  would  allow. 
The  qualifications  she  had  proposed  to  New  Haven  in 
the  preceding  year  are  almost  exactly  what  Massachu- 
setts adopted  when  the  royal  commissioners  demanded, 
in  the  king's  name,  that  church-membership  should  not 
be  insisted  on.  At  that  time,  she  seemed  willing  to 
permit  New  Haven  to  have  a  court  in  which  magis- 
trates might,  without  a  jury,  try  and  determine  causes. 
She  even  seemed  willing  to  exempt  the  churches  of 
New  Haven  County  from  that  Erastian  control,  which, 
in   the   session   of  the   General   Assembly  when  Mr. 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS,  5  2 1 

Shearman  and  Secretary  Allyn  were  appointed  to  de- 
mand the  submission  of  New  Haven,  commended  "to 
the  ministers  and  churches  in  this  colony  to  consider 
whether  it  be  not  their  duty  to  entertain  all  such  per- 
sons who  are  of  an  honest  and  godly  conversation, 
having  a  competency  of  knowledge  in  the  principles  of 
religion,  and  shall  desire  to  join  with  them  in  church 
fellowship  by  an  explicit  covenant ;  and  that  they  have 
their  children  baptized  ;  and  that  all  the  children  of  the 
church  be  accepted  and  accounted  real  members  of 
the  church,  and  that  the  church  exercise  a  due  Chris- 
tian care  and  watch  over  them ;  and  that  when  they 
are  grown  up,  being  examined  by  the  officers  in  the 
presence  of  the  church,  it  appears  in  the  judgment  of 
charity  they  are  duly  qualified  to  participate  in  that 
great  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  by  their  being 
able  to  examine  themselves  and  discern  the  Lord's 
body,  such  persons  be  admitted  to  full  communion. 
The  Court  desires  that  the  several  officers  of  the 
respective  churches  would  be  pleased  to  consider 
whether  it  be  not  the  duty  of  the  Court  to  order  the 
churches  to  practise  according  to  the  premises,  if  they 
do  not  practise  without  such  an  order." 

But  New  Haven,  instead  of  securing  these  conces- 
sions by  capitulating  when  they  were  offered,  had  obsti- 
nately refused,  and  had  now  submitted  without  any 
definite  assurance  of  peculiar  privileges.  Plainly,  they 
were  expecting  that  their  loving  friends  would  accom- 
modate them  with  every  thing  they  might  "  desire  and 
the  patent  bear."  Their  letter  of  submission  mentions 
with  other  matters,  a  committee  they  had  appointed  to 
communicate  their  desires,  and  alleges  that  the  silence 


NE  W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS.  523 

only  yourselves  necessitating  thereunto  shall  revive  them^  being 
willing  to  pursue  truth  and  peace  as  much  as  may  be  with  all  men, 
especially  with  our  dear  brethren  in  the  fellowship  of  the  gospel, 
and  fellow-members  of  the  same  civil  corporation,  accommodated 
with  so  many  choice  privileges,  which  we  are  willing,  after  all  is 
prepared  to  your  hands,  to  confer  upon  you  equal  with  ourselves ; 
which  we  wish  may  at  last  produce  the  long-desired  effect  of  your 
free  and  cordial  closure  with  us,  not  attributing  any  necessity  im- 
posed by  us  further  than  the  situation  of  those  plantations  in  the 
heart  of  our  colony,  and  therein  the  peace  of  posterity  in  these 
parts  of  the  country  is  necessarily  included,  and  that  after  so  long 
liberty  to  present  your  plea  where  you  have  seen  meet.  Gentle- 
men, we  desire  a  full  answer  as  speedily  as  may  be,  whether  those 
lately  empowered,  accept  to  govern  according  to  their  commission ; 
if  not,  other  meet  persons  to  govern,  may  by  us  be  empowered  in 
their  room.  Thus  desiring  the  Lord  to  unite  our  hearts  and  spirits 
in  ways  well  pleasing  in  his  sight, 

"  Which  is  the  prayer  of  your  very  loving  friends, 

"  The  Council  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut. 

"  Signed  by  their  order  by  me,  John  Allyn,  Secretary,''* 

New  Haven  made  but  one  more  effort  to  obtain  con- 
cessions. The  effort  was  neither  vigorous  nor  effectual. 
The  following  letter  ended  its  resistance  to  the  will  of 
Connecticut. 

"  New  Haven,  Jan.  5,  1665. 

"Honored  Gentlemen,  —  Whereas,  by  yours,  dated  Dec.  21, 
1664,  you  please  to  say  that  you  did  the  same  as  we  in  not  making 
any  grievance  known  to  the  commissioners,  &c. ;  unto  that  may  be 
returned  that  you  had  not  the  same  cause  so  to  do,  from  any  pre- 
tence of  injury  by  our  intermeddling  with  your  colony  or  covenant 
interest :  unto  which  we  refer  that  passage.  For  our  expressing 
desires  to  manage  all  our  matters  in  consistency  with  the  Confed- 
eration, we  hope  you  will  not  blame  us;  how  dissonant  or  con- 
sonant your  actings  with  us  have  been,  we  leave  to  the  confederates 
to  judge,  as  their  records  may  show.  That  article  which  allows 
two  colonies  to  join,  doth  also  with  others  assert  the  justness  of 


524  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

each  colony's  distinct  right  until  joined  to  mutual  satisfaction,  and 
the  provision  made  in  such  case  the  last  session  we  gainsay  not, 
when  the  union  is  so  completed,  and  a  new  settlement  of  the  con- 
federation by  the  respective  general  courts  accomplished.  Their 
pathetical  advice  and  counsel  for  an  amicable  union  we  wish  may 
be  so  attended ;  in  order  whereunto  we  gave  you  notice  of  a  com- 
mittee prepared  to  treat  with  you  for  such  an  accommodation, 
unto  which  you  give  us  no  answer,  but  instead  thereof,  send  forth 
your  edict  from  authority  upon  us  before  our  conviction  for  submis- 
sion was  declared  to  you.  The  argument  from  our  intermixt  situa" 
tion  is  the  same  now  as  it  was  before  our  confederating  and  ever 
since,  and  afiEords  no  more  ground  now  to  disannul  the  covenant 
than  before.  We  might  marvel  at  your  strange  why  we  should 
think  your  success  should  be  debtor  to  our  silence,  and  that  be- 
cause the  news  of  our  non-compliance  was  with  the  commissioners  ; 
as  if  the  mere  news  of  such  a  thing  contained  the  strength  of  all 
we  had  to  say  or  plead.  Gentlemen,  we  entreat  you  to  consider 
that  there  is  more  in  it  than  so,  yea,  that  still  we  have  to  allege 
things  of  weight,  and  know  where  and  how,  if  we  chose  not  rather 
to  abate  and  suffer,  than  by  striving,  to  hazard  the  hurting  your- 
selves or  the  common  cause.  We  scope  not  at  reflections,  but 
conviction  and  conscience-satisfaction,  that  so  brethren  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  gospel  might  come  to  a  cordial  and  regular  closure, 
and  so  walk  together  in  love  and  peace  to  advance  Christ's  interest 
among  them,  which  is  all  our  design ;  but  how  those  high  and  holy- 
ends  are  like  so  to  be  promo ved  between  us  without  a  treaty  for 
accommodation,  we  have  cause  to  doubt,  yet  that  we  may  not  fail 
in  the  least  to  perform  whatever  we  have  said,  we  now  signify,  that 
having  seen  the  copy  of  his  Majesty's  commissioners'  determination 
(deciding  the  bounds  betwixt  his  highness  the  Duke  of  York,  and 
Connecticut's  charter),  we  do  declare  submission  thereunto  accord- 
ing to  the  true  intent  of  our  vote,  unto  which  we  refer  you.  As  to 
that  part  of  yours  concerning  our  magistrates'  and  officers'  accept- 
ance, their  answer  is,  that  they  having  been  chosen  by  the  people 
here  to  such  trust,  and  sworn  thereunto  for  the  year  ensuing,  and 
until  new  be  orderly  chosen,  and  being  again  desired  to  continue 
that  trust,  they  shall  go  on  in  due  observance  thereof,  according  to 
the  declaration  left  with  us  by  Mr.  John  AUyn  and  Mr.  Samuel 


NE W  HA  VEN  SUBMITS,  $2$ 

Shearman,  bearing  date  Nov.  19,  1664,  in  hope  to  find  that  in  a 
loving  treaty  for  accommodating  matters  to  the  ends  professed  by 
you,  unto  which  our  committee  stands  ready  to  attend,  upon  notice 
from  you,  truth  and  peace  may  be  maintained.  So  shall  we  not 
give  you  further  trouble,  but  remain,  gentlemen,  your  very  loving 
friends  and  neighbors, 

"  T/te  committee  appointed  by  the  freemen  and  inhabitants  of  New 
Haven  Colony ^  signed  ^  their  order ^  ^  me, 

"  James  Bishop,  Secretary." 


This  reiterated  appeal  for  a  "loving  treaty"  brought 
forth  no  response,  and  the  people  of  the  late  colony  of 
New  Haven  found  that  they  were  not  to  be  allowed 
to  retain  any  of  the  peculiarities  they  had  so  highly 
prized  under  the  old  jurisdiction.  Deputies  from  the 
plantation  of  New  Haven  appeared  and  sat  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Connecticut  in  the  following  April. 
An  act  of  indemnity  was  at  that  time  passed  as  follows : 
"  This  Court  doth  hereby  declare  that  all  former  actings 
that  have  passed  by  the  former  power  at  New  Haven, 
so  far  as  they  have  concerned  this  colony  (whilst  they 
stood  as  a  distinct  colony),  though  they  in  their  own 
nature  have  seemed  uncomfortable  to  us,  yet  they  are 
hereby  buried  in  perpetual  oblivion,  never  to  be  called 
to  account."  At  the  election  in  May  four  gentlemen 
who  had  been  magistrates  under  the  New  Haven  juris- 
diction were  appointed  magistrates  of  Connecticut. 

A  very  large  majority  of  the  people  formerly  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven  soon  became  satisfied 
with  their  new  relation.  Branford,  however,  was  an 
exception.  In  the  words  of  Trumbull,  "Mr.  Pierson 
and  almost  his  whole  church  and  congregation  were 
so  displeased  that  they  soon  removed  into  Newark  in 


526  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY. 

New  Jersey.  They  carried  off  the  records  of  the  church 
and  town,  and,  after  the  latter  had  been  settled  about 
five  and  twenty  years,  left  it  almost  without  inhabit- 
ants. For  more  than  twenty  years  from  that  time 
there  was  not  a  church  formed  in  the.  town.  People 
from  various  parts  of  the  colony  gradually  moved  into 
it,  and  purchased  the  lands  of  the  first  planters,  so  that 
in  about  twenty  years  it  became  resettled  In  1685  it 
was  re-invested  with  town  privileges.** 

Most  of  all,  Davenport,  who,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  sea,  had  devised  the  peculiar  constitution  of  New 
Haven,  who  had  seen  the  establishment  of  successive 
plantations  according  to  the  pattern  he  had  set,  and  the 
combination  of  them  under  a  colonial  government,  was 
distressed  at  the  ruin  of  his  plans  and  his  hopes.     In 
April,  1666,  Winthrop  wrote  requesting  him  to  preach 
the  election  sermon  in  May,  and  suggesting  that  he 
would  have  been  asked  to  preach  the  preceding  year, 
but  that  the  union  was  not  then  complete      Daven- 
port, who   had  just  entered  his  seventieth  year,  and 
was  suffering  with  malaria,  writes  of  his  "  unfitness  for 
such  a  journey,"  mentions  the  intention  of  his  colleague 
to  visit  Boston  as  a  reason  why  he  himself  must  remain 
at  home,  and  adds,  "  I  have  sundry  other  weighty  rea- 
sons whereby  I  am  strongly  and  necessarily  hindered 
from    that   service,  which  may  more  conveniently  be 
given  by  word  of  mouth  to  your  honored  self,  than 
expressed  by  writing."      Retaining   the   letter   in    his 
hand  two  days,  he  writes  in  a  postscript:  "The  rea- 
son which  it  pleased  you  to  give  why  I  was  not  for- 
merly desired   to   preach   at   the   election,  holdeth   as  ^ 
strong  against  my  being  invited  thereunto  now.     For             fl 


NEW  HAVEN  SUBMITS.  $2/ 

we  are  not  yet  fully  joined,  by  the  Court's  refusal 
of  our  freemen  to  vote  in  the  last  election,  when 
they  came  thither  to  that  end,  in  obedience  to  their 
absolute  summons,  and  about  twenty  of  ours  were 
sent  home  as  repudiated  after  they  had  suffered  the 
diflSculties  and  hazards  of  an  uncomfortable  and  unsafe 
journey  in  that  wet  season."  *  Writing  hjs  reply  the 
same  day  he  received  Winthrop's  invitation,  he  ruled 
his  spirit ;  but,  after  two  days  of  musing,  he  gives  vent 
to  his  disappointment  in  the  complaint  that  the  free- 
men of  New  Haven  were  not,  as  such,  received  and 
treated  under  the  expected  treaty  of  accommodation,  as 
freemen  of  Connecticut.  A  year  later  he  writes  to 
Winthrop  with  something  of  his  former  cordiality  and 
abandon,  as  if  time  had  softened  his  resentment.  But 
he  never  recovered  from  the  disappointment  which  fell 
upon  him  like  a  blow  at  the  extinction  of  the  little  sov- 
ereignty whose  foundations  he  had  laid.  New  Haven, 
as  Palfrey  rightly  says,  "ceased  to  be  attractive  to 
him.  It  was  rather  the  monument  of  a  great  defeat 
and  sorrow."  He  speaks  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in 
Massachusetts  of  "Christ's  interest  in  New  Haven 
Colony  as  miserably  lost."  In  this  state  of  mind  he 
received  an  invitation  to  the  pastorate  of  the  First 
Church  in  Boston,  there  to  champion  the  cause  of  ortho- 
doxy against  the  half-way  covenant.  Contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  his  church  and  congregation,  he  determined 
to  accept  the   invitation.     Mr.  John   Hull  of  Boston 

*  These  freemen  of  New  Haven  Colony  doubtless  presented  themselves 
as  voters  in  response  to  a  public  summons  directed  to  freemen  of  Con- 
necticut. As  they  had  not  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  that  colony,  they 
were  repudiated. 


528  HISTORY  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY, 

writes  in  his  diary,  under  date  of  May  2,  1668:  "At 
three  or  four  in  the  afternoon  came  Mr.  John  Daven- 
port to  town,  with  his  wife,  son,  and  son's  family,  and 
were  met  by  many  of  the  town.  A  great  shower  of 
extraordinary  drops  of  rain  fell  as  they  entered  the 
town ;  but  Mr.  Davenport  and  his  wife  were  sheltered 
in  a  coach  of  Mr.  Searl,  who  went  to  meet  them." 

Mr.  Davenport's  ministry  in  Boston  was  of  short 
duration.  He  died  in  less  than  two  years  after  the  date 
given  above.  His  removal  from  New  Haven  doubtless 
helped  to  obliterate  the  bitter  feelings  produced  by  the 
controversy  between  Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 
The  union  of  the  two  colonies  was  in  itself  so  desir- 
able, that  resentment  against  what  was  wrong  in  the 
means  of  accomplishing  it  yielded  to  the  stronger 
feeling  of  satisfaction  with  the  result.  After  two  cen- 
turies. New  Haven  scarcely  remembers  that  she  was 
once  a  distinct  colonv. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX  I. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  MICHAEL  WIGGLESWORTH. 

[From  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gren.  Reg.,  vol.  xvii.] 

I  WAS  bom  of  Godly  Parents,  that  feared  y«  Lord  greatly, 
even  from  their  youth,  but  in  an  ungodly  Place,  where  y«  gen- 
erality of  y«  people  rather  derided  then  imitated  their  piety,  in 
a  place  where,  to  my  knowledge,  their  children  had  Learnt 
wickedness  betimes,  In  a  place  that  was  consumed  w'^  fire  in  a 
great  part  of  it,  after  God  had  brought  them  out  of  it.*  These 
godly  parents  of  mine  meeting  with  opposition  &  persecution 
for  Religion,  because  they  went  from  their  own  Parish  Church 
to  hear  y«  word  &  Receiv  y«  L*  supper  &c  took  up  resolutions 
to  pluck  up  their  stakes  &  remove  themselves  to  New  Eng- 
land, and  accordingly  they  did  so.  Leaving  dear  Relations  friends 
&  acquaintace,  their  native  Land,  a  new  built  house,  a  flour- 
ishing Trade,  to  expose  themselves  to  y«  hazzard  of  y«  sea^ 
and  to  y«  Distressing  difficulties  of  a  howling  wilderness,  that 
they  might  enjoy  Liberty  of  Conscience  &  Christ  in  his  ordi- 
nances. And  the  Lord  brought  them  hither  &  Landed  them 
at  Charlestown,  after  many  difficulties  and  hazzards,  and  me 
along  with  them  being  then  a  child  not  full  seven  yeers  old. 

'  In  the  copy  of  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register  which  belongs  to 
the  N.  H.  Col.  Hist.  Society  is  this  manuscript  note :  — 

"  Hedon,  a  village  in  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  on  the  river  Hum- 
ber,  three  miles  from  Hull,  was  almost  entirely  consumed  by  fire  in  the 
year  1656.  H.  D." 

The  initials  are  those  of  Mr.  Horace  Day,  a  former  secretary  of  the 
Society. 

•         53« 


532  APPENDIX  /. 

After  about  7  weeks  stay  at  Charls  Town,  my  parents  removed 
again  by  sea  to  New-Haven  in  }•«  month  of  Oct9ber.    In  o*"  pas- 
sage thither  we  were  in  great  Danger  by  a  storm  which  drove 
us  upon  a  Beach  of  sand  where  we  lay  beating  til  another  Tide 
fetcht  us  off;  but  God  carried  us  to  o'  port  in  safety.     Winter 
approaching  we  dwelt  in  a  cellar  partly  under  ground  covered 
with  earth  the  first  winter.     But  I  remember  that  one  great  rain 
brake  in  upon  us  &  drencht  me  so  in  my  bed  being  asleep  that 
I  fell  sick  upon  it ;  but  >•«  Lord  in  mercy  spar'd  my  Ufe  &  re- 
stored my  health.     When  y«  next  summer  was  come  1  was  sent 
to  school  to  Mr.   Ezekiel  Cheever  who  at   that  time  taught 
school  in  his  own  house,  and  under  him  in  a  year  or  two  I 
profited  so  much  through  y«  blessing  of  God,  that  I  began  to 
make  Latin  &  to  get  forward  apace.     But  God  who  is  infinitely 
wise  and  absolutely  soverain,  and  gives  no  account  concerning 
any  of  his  proceedings,  was  pleased  about  this  time  to  \'isit  my 
father  with  Lameness  which  grew  upon  him  more  &  more  to 
his  dying  Day,  though  he  liv*d  under  it  13  yeers.     He  wanting 
help  was  fain  to  take  me  off  from  school  to  follow  other  employ- 
ments for  y^  space  of  3  or  4  yeers  until  I  had  lost  all  that  I  had 
gained  in  the  Latine  Tongue.     But  when  I  was  now  in  my 
fourteenth  veer,  my  Father,  who  I  suppose  was  not  wel  satis- 
fied in  keeping  me  from  Learning  whereto  I  had  been  designed 
from  my  infancy,  &  not  judging  me  fit  for  husbandry,  sent  me 
to  school  again,  though  at  that  time  I  had  little  or  no  dispo- 
sition to  it,  but  I  was  uilling  to  submit  to  his  authorit)'  therein 
and  accordingly  I  went  to  school  under  no  small  disadvantage 
&  discouragement  seing  those  that  were  far  inferior  to  me,  by  ray 
discontinuance  now  gotten  far  before  me.     But  in  a  little  time 
it  appeared  to  be  of  God,  who  was  pleased  to  facilitate  my  work 
&  bless  mv  studies  that  I  soon  recovered  what  I  had  lost  & 
gained  a  great  deal  more,  so  that  in  2  yeers  and  3  quarters 
I  was  judged  fit  for  )•«  Colledge  and  thither  I  was  sent,  far  from 
my  parents  &  acquaintace  among  strangers.     But  when  father 


APPENDIX  L  533 

and  mother  both  forsook  me,  then  the  Lord  took  care  of 
me.  It  was  an  act  of  great  self  Denial  in  my  father  that  not- 
withstanding his  own  Lameness  and  great  weakness  of  Body 
w<=*»  required  the  service  &  helpfulness  of  a  son,  and  having 
but  one  son  to  be  y«  staff  of  his  age  &  supporter  of  his  weakness 
he  would  yet  for  my  good  be  content  to  deny  himself  of  that 
comfort  and  Assistace  I  might  have  Lent  him.  It  was  also  an 
evident  proof  of  a  strong  Faith  in  him,  in  that  he  durst  adven- 
ture to  send  me  to  y«  CoUedge,  though  his  Estate  was  but 
small  &  little  enough  to  maintain  himself  &  small  family  left 
at  home.  And  God  Let  him  Live  to  see  how  acceptable  to 
himself  this  service  was  in  giving  up  his  only  son  to  y*  Lord  and 
bringing  him  up  to  Learning ;  especially  ^'^  Lively  actings  of  his 
faith  &  self  denial  herein.  For  first,  notwithstanding  his  great 
weakness  of  body,  yet  he  Lived  til  I  was  so  far  brought  up  as 
that  I  was  called  to  be  a  fellow  of  y«  Colledge  and  improved 
in  Publick  service  there,  and  until  I  had  preached  several 
Times ;  yea  and  more  then  so,  he  Lived  to  see  &  hear  what 
Ood  had  done  for  my  soul  in  turning  me  from  Darkness  to 
light  &  fr5  the  power  of  Sathan  unto  God,  w<^  filled  his  heart 
ful  of  joy  and  thankfulness  beyond  what  can  be  expressed. 
And  for  his  outward  estate,  that  was  so  far  from  being  sunk  by 
what  he  spent  from  yeer  to  yeer  upon  my  education,  that  in  6 
veers  time  it  was  plainly  doubled,  w<^*»  himself  took  great  notice 
of,  and  spake  of  it  to  my  self  and  others  to  y«  praise  of  God, 
w»*»  Admiration  and  thankfulness.  And  after  he  had  lived 
under  great  &  sore  affliction  for  y«  space  of  13  yeers  a  pat- 
tern of  faith,  patience,  humility  &  heavenly  mindedness,  having 
done  his  work  in  my  education  and  receive*  an  answer  to  his 
])rayers  God  took  him  to  his  Heavenly  Rest  where  he  is  now 
reaping  y«  fruit  of  his  Labors.  When  I  came  first  to  }•«  Col- 
ledge, I  had  indeed  enjoyed  y«  benefit  of  religious  &  strict  edu- 
cation, and  God  in  his  mercy  and  pitty  kept  me  from  scandalous 
sins  before  I  came  thither  &  after  I  came  there,  but  alas  I  had 


534  APPENDIX  I. 

a  naughty  vile  heart  and  wzs  acted  by  corrupt  nature  &  there- 
fore could  propound  no  Right  and  noble  ends  to  my  self,  but 
acted  from  self  and  for  self.  I  was  indeed  studious  and  strove 
to  outdoe  my  compeers,  but  it  was  for  bono'  &  applause  & 
preferm*  &  such  poor  Beggarly  ends.  Thus  I  had  my  Ends 
and  God  had  his  Ends  far  differing  fix)m  mine,  yet  it  pleased 
him  to  Bless  my  studies,  &  to  make  me  grow  in  knowledge  both 
in  y«  tongues  &  Inferior  Arts  &  also  in  Divinity.  But  when  I 
had  been  there  about  tliree  yeers  and  a  half;  God  in  his  Love 
&  Pitty  to  my  soul  wrought  a  great  change  in  me  both  in  heart 
&  Life,  and  from  that  time  forward  I  learnt  to  study  with  God 
and  for  God.  And  whereas  before  that,  I  had  thoughts  of  ap- 
plying my  self  to  y*  study  &  Practice  of  Physick,  I  wholly  laid 
aside  those  thoughts,  and  did  chuse  to  serve  Christ  in  y«  work 
of  >•*  ministry  if  he  would  please  to  fit  me  for  it  &  to  accept 
of  my  service  in  that  great  work. 


APPENDIX  II. 

LETTER  OF  NATHANAEL  ROWE  TO  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

To  the  worshipfuU  b*  much  respected  Friende  Mr,  Wtnthrop, 
Magistrate  liveing  att  Boston  in  New  Ing: 

Most  loving  &  kinde  Sir,  —  My  humblest  service  remem- 
bered to  you,  I  now  w*^  much  consideratione  (and  thinkinge 
of  all  things  &  businesses)  doe  now  write  to  you.  First  of  all 
my  father  sent  mee  to  this  countrie  verie  hastelie,  (&  overmuch 
inconsideraely)  indeed  it  is  a  sore  griefe  to  mee  y*  I  should 
charge  my  prudent  &  most  deare  father  w**»  the  evill  of  rash 
doeinge  of  thinges ;  but  yet  being  compelled  in  this  time  of 
straighteness,  I  must  say  itt.  My  father  sent  with  mee  pvtiones 
enough  for  to  serve  mee  a  yeare  or  towe ;  as  meale,  flower, 
buttar,  beefe.  I,  haveinge  lost  my  meale  and  flower,  was  com- 
pelled to  sell  the  rest  of  my  pvicon,  &  indeed,  being  counselled 
soe  to  doe,  I  immediately  did  itt.  Then  Mr.  Eaton  and  Mr. 
Davenport  haveinge  noe  direct  order  w*  to  doe,  wished  me  & 
sent  me  unto  Mr.  Eaton,  the  marchant*s  brother,  to  be  instructed 
in  the  rudiments  of  the  Lattine  tongue  (in  w«*»  w'^  practise,  I 
shalbe  prettie  skilfull.  I  lived  with  him  about  a  month,  & 
verily  in  y*  space  he  spake  not  one  word  to  mee,  scilicet,  about 
my  leaminge,  &  after  he  went  awaie,  I  lived  an  idle  life,  because 
I  had  noe  instructor.  After  all  this,  I  was  sent  (by  Mr.  Bel- 
lingha*  order)  unto  Mr.  Willis  of  Linne,  the  school-maister :  and 
theire  I  liveing  privately  gott  the  best  part  of  my  Lattine- 
tongue,  but  yet  not  by  his  instructiones,  butt  indeed  onelie  by 
seeinge  his  manner  of  teachinge,  &  gatheringe  thinges  of  my 

535 


536  APPENDIX  //. 

selfe,  &  also  by  bribeinge  (or  giveing  gifts  to)  his  sonnes  for 
pattemes ;  of  which  Mr  Willis  never  knew  as  yett.  This  last 
half  yeare  hath  binne  spent  in  receiveing  instructiones  frome 
Mr.  Dunster,  whoe  (blessed  be  God  for  it)  hath  binne  a  guide 
to  leade  mee  onne  in  the  waie  of  hummane  litterature,  &  alsoe 
in  divine.  Thus  much  for  my  cors  in  this  lande  :  seeing,  sir,  you 
out  of  your  fountaine  of  wisdome,  doe  adjudge  that  it  is  my 
father's  will  &  pleasure  that  I  should  betake  myselfe  to  one 
thinge  or  other,  whereby  I  mighte  gett  my  liveinge  (O  Tempora, 
O  Mores  !)  why  for  my  part  I  shall  be  willinge  to  doe  anie 
thinge  for  my  father  (God  assistinge  mee)  att  Quille-piacke,  as 
to  help  to  cleare  grownde,  or  hough  upp  grounde,  quia  enim^ 
qui  humiliatury  is  vera  icmpestivd  exaltabitur.  But,  I  pray 
you,  sir,  to  make  the  waie  cleare  for  mee  to  goe  to  England,  so 
that  I  may  speake  more  fulke  to  my  father  &  w*  my  friends,  soe 
that  if  my  father  hath  caste  his  affections  off  frome  mee  (which, 
if  I  had  but  one  serious  thought  that  waie,  it  would  be  the  dis- 
tractinge  of  my  spirite  all  the  daies  I  have  to  live.  The  curse 
of  the  parent  is  the  greatest  heviness  &  burden  to  [the]  soule 
of  a  childe  y'  is ;  my  father  never  made  anie  such  thing  knowne 
to  mee)  that  I  might  not  loose  those  opportunities  that  are 
offerred  to  mee  by  one  of  my  uncles,  whome  I  am  certain  will 
doe  mee  anie  good,  &  if  my  father  be  offended  w***  mee,  then, 
if  I  be  att  London,  I  feare  not  but  tha[t]  my  uncle  will  pacifie 
my  father's  wrathe.    Thus  I  end. 

Yo'  observant  servant, 

Nath.  Rowe. 


APPENDIX  III. 

LAMBERTON'S    SHIP. 

SO  much  interest  is  felt  in  Lamberton*s  ship  that  I  have  f<?lt 
inclined  to  bring  together  what  the  early  writers  have 
recorded  concerning  the  vessel  herself  and  concerning  the 
atmospheric  phenomenon  which  the  superstition  of  the  times 
connected  with  her  loss. 

Winthrop  mentions  her  thrice.  When  the  news  of  her  depar- 
ture had  reached  Boston,  he  records  that  "  this  was  the  earliest 
and  sharpest  winter  we  had  since  we  arrived  in  the  country,  and 
it  was  as  vehement  cold  to  the  southward  as  here,"  adding,  as 
one  illustration,  "At  New  Haven,  a  ship  bound  for  England 
was  forced  to  be  cut  out  of  the  ice  three  miles."  In  the  follow- 
ing June,  when  solicitude  had  nearly  or  quite  given  place  to 
despair,  he  writes,  "  There  fell  a  sad  affliction  upon  the  country 
this  year,  though  it  more  particularly  concerned  New  Haven 
and  those  parts.  A  small  ship  of  about  one  hundred  tons  set 
out  from  New  Haven  in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  month  last, 
(the  harbor  being  then  so  frozen  as  they  were  forced  to  hew 
her  through  the  ice  near  three  miles).  She  was  laden  with 
pease  and  some  wheat,  all  in  bulk,  with  about  two  hundred 
West  India  hides,  and  store  of  beaver  and  plate,  so  as  it  was 
estimated  in  all  at  five  thousand  pounds.  There  were  in  her 
about  seventy  persons,  whereof  divers  were  of  very  precious 
account,  as  Mr.  Gregson,  one  of  their  magistrates,  the  wife  of 
Mr.  Goodyear,  another  of  their  magistrates  (a  right  godly 
woman),  Captain  Turner,  Mr.  Lamberton,  master  of  the  ship, 

537 


538«  APPENDIX  III. 

and  some  seven  or  eight  others,  members  of  the  church  there. 
The  ship  never  went  voyage  before,  and  was  very  crank-sided, 
so  as  it  was  conceived  she  was  overset  in  a  great  tempest  which 
happened  soon  after  she  put  to  sea,  for  she  was  never  heard  of 
after."  Two  years  afterward,  that  is,  in  June,  1648,  he  writes, 
as  if  the  news  had  just  reached  him,  "  There  appeared  over  the 
harbor  at  New  Haven,  in  the  evening,  the  form  of  the  keel  of  a 
ship  with  three  masts,  to  which  were  suddenly  added  the  tack- 
ling and  sails,  and  presently  after,  upon  the  top  of  the  poop,  a 
man  standing  with  one  hand  akimbo  under  his  left  side,  arid  in 
his  right  hand  a  sword  stretched  out  toward  the  sea.  Then 
from  the  side  of  the  ship  which  was  from  the  town  arose  a  great 
smoke  which  covered  all  the  ship  and  in  that  smoke  she  van- 
ished away ;  but  some  saw  her  keel  sink  into  the  water.  This 
was  seen  by  many,  men  and  women,  and  it  continued  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour." 

Hubbard,  who  was  bom  in  1649,  says,  "The  main  founders 
of  New  Haven  were  men  of  great  estates,  notably  well  versed  in 
trading  and  merchandising,  strongly  bent  for  trade  and  to  gain 
their  subsistence  that  way,  choosing  their  seat  on  purpose  in 
order  thereunto,  so  that  if  the  providence  of  God  had  gone 
along  with  an  answerable  blessing,  they  had  stood  fair  for  the 
first  born  of  that  emplo)Tnent.  But  that  mercy,  as  hath  since 
appeared,  was  provided  for  another  place,  and  a  meaner  con- 
dition for  them ;  for  they  quickly  began  to  meet  with  insuper- 
able difficulties,  and  though  they  built  some  shipping  and  sent 
abroad  their  provisions  into  foreign  parts,  and  purchased  lands 
at  Delaware  and  other  places  to  set  up  trading-houses  for  beaver, 
yet  all  would  not  help ;  they  sank  apace,  and  their  stock  wasted, 
so  that  in  five  or  six  years  they  were  ver}'  near  the  bottom  :  yet, 
being  not  willing  to  give  over,  they  did,  as  it  were,  gather 
together  all  their  remaining  strength,  to  the  building  and  load- 
ing out  one  ship  for  England,  to  try  if  any  better  success  might 
befall  them  for  their  retrievement.     Into  this  ship  they  put,  in  a 


APPENDIX  III.  539 

manner,  all  their  tradable  estates,  much  com,  large  quantities 
of  plate,  and  sundry  considerable  persons  also  went,  amongst 
whom  was  Mr.  Gregson  forementioned,  who,  besides  his  own 
private  occasions,  carried  with  him  some  estate  in  order  to  the 
procuring  of  a  patent :  but  all  this,  though  done  by  very  wise 
men,  yet  hath  since  been  thought  to  be  carried  by  a  kind  of 
infatuation ;  for  the  ship  was  ill-built,  very  wait-sided,  and,  to 
increase  the  inconveniency  thereof,  ill-laden,  the  lighter  goods 
at  the  bottom  :  so  that  understanding  men  did  even  beforehand 
conclude  in  their  deliberate  thoughts  a  calamitous  issue,  espe- 
cially being  a  winter  voyage,  and  so  in  the  dead  of  winter  that 
they  were  necessitated  with  saws  to  cut  open  the  ice,  for  the 
passage  of  the  ship  frozen  in  for  a  large  way  together ;  yet  were 
all  these  things  overlooked,  and  men  went  on  in  a  hurry  till  it 
was  too  late,  when  such  circumstances  as  these  were  called  to 
mind.  The  issue  was,  the  ship  was  never  heard  of,  foundered 
in  the  sea,  as  is  most  probable,  and  with  the  loss  of  it  their 
hope  of  trade  gave  up  the  ghost,  which  was  gasping  for  life 
before  in  New  Haven.  But  this  was  not  all  the  loss ;  besides 
the  goods,  there  were  sundry  precious  Christians  lost,  not  less 
than  ten  belonging  to  the  church  there,  who,  as  Mr.  Cotton's 
expression  upon  it  was,  went  to  heaven  in  a  chariot  of  water,  as 
Elijah  long  before  in  a  chariot  of  fire.  There  were  also  some 
writings  of  Mr.  Hooker's  and  Mr.  Davenport's  lost,  that  never 
were  at  all  or  not  fully  repaired." 

In  another  place  discoursing  of  memorable  accidents  he  says, 
"  Another  deplorable  loss  befell  New  England  the  same  year, 
wherein  New  Haven  was  principally  concerned  and  the  south- 
ern parts  of  the  country  :  for  the  inhabitants  of  that  town,  being 
Londoners,  were  very  desirous  to  fall  into  a  way  of  traffic,  in 
which  they  were  better  skilled  than  in  matters  of  husbandry; 
and  to  that  end  had  built  a  ship  of  one  hundred  tons,  which 
they  freighted  for  London,  intending  thereby  to  lay  some  foun- 
dation of  a  future  trade :  but  either  by  the  ill  form  of  her 


540  APPENDIX  III, 

building  or  by  the  shifting  of  her  lading  (which  was  wheat,  which 
is  apt  to  shift  its  place  in  storms),  the  vessel  miscarried,  and  in 
her  seventy  persons,  some  of  whom  were  of  the  princijxil  part  of 
the  inhabitants,  with  all  the  wealth  they  could  gather  together." 
Hubbard  makes  no  mention  of  the  apparition  in  the  air 
which  followed  the  loss  of  the  ship,  and  Wintlirop,  who  was  no 
sceptic  in  regard  to  supernatural  interventions,  records  it  with- 
out intimating  that  he  regarded  it  as  a  miracle ;  but  Mather, 
who  wrote  about  as  long  after  the  occurrence  as  did  Hubbard, 
has  given  us  the  story  with  the  superstitious  interpretation 
attached  to  it  by  some,  at  least,  of  his  contemporaries.  Desir- 
ing to  give  it  accurately,  he  wTOte  to  Rev.  James  Pierpont,  the 
successor  of  Davenport  in  the  pastorate  of  the  church  at  New 
Haven,  and  received  from  him  the  following  letter  in  reply :  — 

"  Reverend  and  Dear  Sir,  —  In  compliance  with  your  desires  I  now 
give  you  the  relation  of  that  apparition  of  a  ship  in  the  air,  which  I  have 
received  from  the  most  credible,  judicious,  and  curious  sur\*iving  obscr\'ers 
of  it. 

"In  the  year  1647,*  besides  much  other  lading,  a  far  more  rich  treasure 
of  passengers  (five  or  six  of  which  were  persons  of  chief  note  and  worth 
in  New  Haven)  put  themselves  on  board  a  new  ship,  built  at  Rhode 
Island,  of  about  a  hundred  and  fiftv  tons,  but  so  waltv  that  the  master 
(Lamberton)  often  said  she  would  prove  their  grave.  In  the  month  of 
Januar)-,  cutting  their  way  through  much  ice,  on  which  they  were  accom- 
panied with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport,  besides  many  other  friends,  with 
many  fears,  as  well  as  prayers  and  tears,  they  set  sail.  Mr.  Daven- 
port in  prayer  with  an  observable  emphasis  used  these  words :  *  Lord, 
if  it  be  thy  pleasure  to  bur}'  these  our  friends  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea, 
they  are  thine,  save  them.'  The  spring  following,  no  tidings  of  these 
friends  arrived  with  the  ships  from  England;  New  Haven's  heart  began 
to  fail  her :  this  put  the  godly  people  on  much  prayer,  both  public  and 
private,  that  the  Lord  would  (if  it  was  his  pleasure)  let  them  hear  what  he 
had  done  with  their  dear  friends,  and  prepare  them  with  a  suitable  sub- 
mission to  his  holy  will.  In  June  next  ensuing,  a  great  thunder-storm 
arose  out  of  the  north-west ;  after  which  (the  hemisphere  being  serene) 

*  Pierpont  was  in  error  in  regard  to  the  year.  The  ship  sailed  in  Jan- 
uar}',  1646,  New  St}'le. 


APPENDIX  III.  541 

about  an  hour  before  sunset,  a  ship  of  like  dimensions  with  the  aforesaid, 
with  her  canvas  and  colors  abroad  (though  the  wind  northerly)  appeared 
in  the  air  coming  up  from  our  harbor's  mouth,  which  lies  southward  from 
the  town,  seemingly  with  her  sails  filled  under  a  fresh  gale,  holding  her 
course  north,  and  continuing  under  observation,  sailing  against  the  wind 
for  the  space  of  half  an  hour. 

"  Many  were  drawn  to  behold  this  great  work  of  God ;  yea,  the  very 
children  cried  out, '  There's  a  brave  ship.'  At  length,  crowding  up  as  far 
as  there  is  usually  water  sufficient  for  such  a  vessel,  and  so  near  some  of 
the  spectators,  as  that  they  imagined  a  man  might  hurl  a  stone  on  board 
her,  her  main-top  seemed  to  be  blown  off,  but  left  hanging  in  the  shrouds ; 
then  her  mizzen-top;  then  all  her  masting  seemed  blown  away  by  the 
board:  quickly  after  the  hulk  brought  to  a  careen,  she  overset  and  so 
vanished  into  a  smoky  cloud,  which  in  some  time  dissipated,  leaving,  as 
ever)'where  else,  a  clear  air.  The  admiring  spectators  could  distinguish 
the  several  colors  of  each  part,  the  principal  rigging,  and  such  proportions, 
as  caused  not  only  the  generality  of  persons  to  say, '  This  was  the  mould  of 
their  ship,  and  this  was  her  tragic  end ; '  but  Mr.  Davenport  also  in  public 
declared  to  this  effect,  that  God  had  condescended,  for  the  quieting  of 
their  afflicted  spirits,  this  extraordinary  account  of  his  sovereign  disposal 
of  those  for  whom  so  many  fervent  prayers  were  made  continually.  Thus 
I  am,  sir,  Your  humble  servant, 

"James  Pierpont." 


APPENDIX  IV. 

SEATING  THE  MEETING-HOUSE. 

«    A  T  a  general  court  held  the  loth  of  Marcli,  164!,  the 
/~\  names  of  people  as  they  were  seated  in  the  meeting- 
house were  read  in  court,  and  it  was  ordered  they  should  be 
recorded,  which  was  as  followeth :  — 

"FIRST   FOR  THE   MEN'S   SEATS,  VIZ.: 

"  TJie  middle  seats  have  to  sit  in  them  : 

"  I  St  seat,  the  governor  and  deput}'  governor. 

"  2d  seat,  Mr.  Malbon,  magistrate. 

**3d  seat,  Mr.  Evance,  Mr.  Bracey,  Mr.  Francis  Newman, 
Mr.  Gibbard. 

"  4th  seat,  Goodman  Wigglesworth,  Bro.  Atwater,  Bro.  Seeley, 
Bro.  Miles. 

"  5  th  seat,  Bro.  Crane,  Bro.  Gibbs,  Mr.  Caffinch,  Mr.  Ling, 
Bro.  Andrews. 

"  6th  seat,  Bro.  Davis,  Goodman  Osborne,  Anthony  Thomp- 
son, Mr.  Browning,  Mr.  Rutherford,  Mr.  Higginson. 

"  7th  seat,  Bro.  Camfield,  Mr.  James,  Bro.   Benham,  \Vm. 
lliompson,  Bro.  Lindon,  Bro.  Martin. 

"8th    seat,  Jno.  Meigs,    Jno.   Cooper,  Peter  Brown,  \Vm. 
Peck,  Jno.  Gregor}',  Nicholas  Elsey. 

"9th  seat,  Edw.  Bannister,  Jno.  Harriman,  Benja.  Wilmot, 
Jar\-is  Boykin,  Arthur  Halbidge. 
54a 


APPENDIX  IV.  543 

"  In  the  cross  seats  at  the  end. 

"  I  St  seat,  Mr.  Pell,  Mr.  Tuttle,  Bro.  Fowler. 
"  2d  seat,  Thom.  Nash,  Mr.  Allerton,  Bro.  Perry. 
"  3d  seat,  Jno.  Nash,  David  Atwater,  Thom.  Yale. 
4th  seat,  Robert  Johnson,  Thom.  Jeffrey,  John  Punderson. 
5  th  seat,  Thom.  Munson,  Jno.  Livermore,  Roger  Ailing, 
Joseph  Nash,  Sam.  Whitehead,  Thomas  James. 

'*  In  the  other  little  seat,  John  Clarke,  Mark  Pearce. 

"  In  the  seats  on  the  side,  for  men. 

"  I  St,  Jeremy  Whitnell,  Wm.  Preston,  Thom.  Kimberley, 
Thom.  Powell. 

"  2d,  Daniel  Paul,  Richard  Beckley,  Richard  Mansfield, 
James  Russell. 

'*  3d,  Wm.  Potter,  Thom.  Lamson,  Christopher  Todd,  Wil- 
liam Ives. 

"4th,  Hen.  Glover,  Wm.  Thorp,  Matthias  Hitchcock, 
Andrew  Low. 

"  On  the  other  side  of  the  door. 

"  I  St,  John  Moss,  Luke  Atkinson,  Jno.  Thomas,  Abraham 
Bell. 

"  2d,  George  Smith,  John  Wakefield,  Edw.  Patteson,  Richard 
Beach. 

"  3d,  John  Bassett,  Timothy  Ford,  Thom.  Knowles,  Robert 
Preston. 

"4th,  Richd.  Osborne,  Robert  Hill,  Jno.  Wilford,  Henry 
Gibbons. 

"  5  th,  Francis  Brown,  Adam  NicoUs,  Goodman  Leeke, 
Goodman  Dayton. 

"  6th,  Wm.  Gibbons,  John  Vincent,  Thomas  Wheeler,  John 
Brockett 


544  APPENDIX  IV. 


"SECONDLY  FOR  THE  WOMEN'S  SEATS. 

"  In  Oie  middle. 

"  I  St  seat,  old  Mrs.  Eaton. 

"  2d  seaty  Mrs.  Malbon,  Mrs.  Gregson,  Mrs.  Davenport,  ^ 
Hooke. 

"  3d  seat,   Elder  Newman's  wife,  Mrs.    Lamberton,   Mrs. 
Turner,  Mrs.  Brewster. 

"4th  seat.  Sister  Wakeman,  Sister  Gibbard,  Sister  Gilbert, 
Sster  Miles. 

"  5th  seat,  Mr.  Francis  Newman's  wife,  Sister  Gibbs,  Sister 
Crane,  Sister  Tuttle,  Sister  Atwater. 

"  6th  seat,  Sister  Seeley,  Mrs.  Caffinch,  Mrs.  Pern',  Sister 
Davis,  Sister  Cheever,  Jno.  Nash's  wife. 

"  7th  seat,  David  Atwater's  wife.  Sister  Clarke,  Mrs.  Yale, 
Sister  Osborne,  Sister  Thompson. 

"8th    seat,   Sister  Wigglesworth,    Goody  Johnson,   Goody 
Camfield,  Sister  Punderson,  Goody  Meigs,  Sister  Gregory. 

"9th   seat.  Sister  Todd,  Sister  Boykin,  \Vm.  Potter's   wife. 
Matthias  Hitchcock's  wife,  Sister  Cooper. 


"  In  the  cross  seats  at  the  end. 

"  ist,  Mrs.  Bracey,  Mrs.  Evance. 
"  2d,  Sister  Fowler,  Sister  Ling,  Sister  Allerton. 
"  3d,  Sister  Jeffrey,  Sister  Rutherford,  Sister  Livermore. 
"  4th,  Sister  Preston,  Sister  Benham,  Sister  Mansfield. 
"  5th,   Sister  Ailing,   Goody    Bannister,   Sister    Kimberley, 
Goody  Wilmot,  Sister  WTiitnell,  Mrs.  Higginson. 

"/«  the  little  cross  seat. 
"  Sister  Potter  the  midwife,  and  old  Sister  Nash. 


APPENDIX  IV.  545 

"  In  the  seats  on  the  side. 

"  I  St  seat,  Sister  Powell,  Goody  Lindon,  Mrs.  James. 

"2d  seat,  Sister  Whitehead,  Sister  Munson,  Sister  Beckley, 
Sister  Martin. 

"3d  seat,  Sister  Peck,  Joseph  Nash's  wife,  Peter  Brown's 
wife.  Sister  Russell. 

"4th  seat,  Sister  Ives,  Sister  Bassett,  Sister  Patteson,  Sister 
Elsey. 

"  In  the  seats  on  the  other  side  of  the  door. 

"  ist  seat,  Jno.  Thomas's  wife,  Goody  Knowles,  Goody 
Beach,  Goody  Hull. 

"  2d  seat,  Sister  Wakefield,  Sister  Smith,  Goody  Moss,  James 
Clarke's  wife. 

"  3d  seat.  Sister  Brockett,  Sister  Hill,  Sister  Clarke,  Goody 
Ford. 

"4th  seat,  Goody  Osborne,  Goody  Wheeler,  Sister  Nicolls, 
Sister  Brown." 

Nine  years  later  (Feb.  11,  165^)  the  names  of  people  as  fO^v 

they  were  seated  in  the  meeting-house  were  again  recorded  as 
follows :  — 

"  The  long  seats  in  the  middUyfor  men. 

"  I .  The  governor  and  the  deputy  governor. 
"  2.  Mr.  Newman,  magistrate. 

3.  Mr.  Wakeman,  Mr.  Gibbard,  John  Gibbs,  William  Davis. 

4.  William  Judson,  Mr.  Goodenhouse,  Mr.  Mullener,  John 
Nash. 

"5.  Henry  Lindon,  William  Andrews,  John  Cooper,  Roger 
Ailing,  William  Thompson. 

"  6.  Thorn.  Munson,  Sam.  Whitehead,  William  Potter,  Math. 
Moulthrop,  Jno.  Peakin,  John  Harriman,  Christopher  Todd. 

"7.  Jno.  Benhaip,  Jarvis  Boykin,  Nich.  Elsey,  Ro.  Tal- 
madge,  Jer.  How,  Jno.  Thompson,  James  Bishop. 


546  APPENDIX  IV. 


a 


8.  Jno.  Moss,  Jno.  Brockett,  Thos.  Morris,  Andrew  Low, 
Thos.  Wheeler,  Rich.  Miles,  jun.,  Jno.  Thompson,  jiin. 

"9.  William  Gibbons,  William  Paine,  Jno.  Winston,  Eldw. 
Parker,  Edward  Preston. 

"  77i^  cross  seats  at  upper  end. 

"  I.  Mr.  Tuttle,  Mr.  Jno.  Davenport,  William  Fowler,  Mr. 
Allerton,  sen. 

"  2.  Mr.  Caffinch,  David  Atwater,  Mr.  Rutherford,  Mr.  Yale. 

"  3.  Thomas  Jeffrey,  Jno.  Punderson,  Mr.  Augur,  Mr.  DanieL 

"  4.  William  Peck,  William  Bradley,  Thomas  Mullener. 

"  5.  Jos.  Nash,  William  Russell,  Jer.  Osborne,  Geo.  Con- 
stable, Rich.  Gregson,  Francis  Brown,  Allen  Ball,  Thomas 

Johnson. 

"  In  the  iittie  seat. 

"  Mr.  Bowers,  Thom.  Kimberley. 

-"  In  the  seats  on  the  side^  on  both  sides  of  the  door, 

"  I.  Thomas  Powell,  James  Russell,  John  Hodson,  Joseph. 
Alsop. 

"  2.  Richard  Beckley,  Henry  Glover,  John  Chidsey,  Thom. 
Mix. 

"  3.  Abraham  Doolittle,  Matthias  Hitchcock,  John  Jones, 
Thom.  Lamson. 

"  4.  Geo.  Smith,  John  Thomas,  James  Qarke,  Geo.  Pardee. 

"  5.  Benj.  Wilmot,  Edwa.  Hitchcock,  Edwa.  Patteson,  Robert 
Hill. 

"6.  John  Hall,  Jno.  Wakefield,  Timothy  Ford,  Matthew 
Rowe. 

"  7.  Nathaniel  Merriman,  John  Tuttle,  Thom.  Barnes,  Peter 
Mallory. 

"  8.  William  Bassett,  John  Benham,  Martin  Tichener,  Philip 
Leeke. 

"  9.  Edward  Camp,  John  Johnson,  William  Holt,  Isaac  White- 
head. 


APPENDIX  IV.  547 


u 


Against  the  soldiers^  seats. 

"  I.  Jno.  Sacket,  James  Eaton,  Ralph  Lines,  Isaac  Beecher, 
Abra.  Kimberley. 

"2.  John  Ailing,  Edward  Perkins,  Sam.  Marsh,  Joseph 
Benham. 

"  3,  Henry  Morrell,  Sam.  Hodskins,  William  61ayden« 

"  On  the  bench  before  the  little  seat^ 
"  Henry  Gibbons,  Jno.  Vincent. 

"  Before  the  governor^ s  seat. 

"  Rob.  Seeley,  Rob.  Johnson,  Tho.  Mitchell,  Thomas  Wheeler, 
senior. 

''Before  Mr.  Gilbert's  seat 

"Jer.  Whitnell,  Rich.  Johnson,  Ephraim  Pennington,  Rich. 
Hull. 

''Before  Mr.  Tuttle's  seat. 

"  Rob.  Pigg,  William  TTiorp,  Henry  Bristow,  Thom.  Beamont. 

"  Before  the  pillar. 
"  Edward  Watson. 

"THE  WOMEN'S  SEATS. 

"  The  long  seats. 

"  The  first  as  it  was. 

"  In  the  second,  Mrs.  Newman  added. 

"  3.  Mrs.  Goodenhouse,  Mrs.  Gilbert,  Mrs,  Miles,  Mrs.  Wake- 
man. 

"  4.  Mrs.  Gibbard,  Mrs.  Tuttle,  Goodwife  Gibbs,  Goodwife 
Davis. 

"  5.  Jno.  Nash's  wife,  Mrs.  Caffinch,  Mrs.  Rutherford,  Good- 
wife  Lindon,  Da.  Atwater's  wife. 


548  APPENDIX  IV, 

"6.  Goodwife  Punderson,  Mrs.  Yale,  Rob.  Johnson's  wife, 
Goodwife  Seeley,  Goodwife  Todd,  Goody  Bradley. 

"  7.  Goodwife  Camp,  Goo.  Osborne,  Goo.  Thompson,  Goo. 
Moulthrop,  Goo.  Potter,  Will.  Russell's  wfe. 

"  8.  Goodw.  Talmadge,  Goodw.  Parker,  Goodw.  Bishop, 
Goodw.  WTieeler,  Goodw.  Hitchcock,  Goodw.  Clarke. 

"9.  Goodw.  Wilmot,  sen.,  Goodw.  Wilmot,  jun.,  Goodve. 
Brockett,  Goodw.  HaU,  Goodw.  Paine. 

"  Cross  seats. 

"  I.  Mrs.  Allerton  the  elder,  Mr.  Goodyear's  daughters. 

"  2.  Mrs.  Bowers,  Goodw.  Fowler,  Goodw.  Jefl&^y. 

"  3.  Goodwife  Preston,  senior,  William  Peck's  wife,  Goodw. 
Kimberley  the  elder. 

"  4.  Sam.  Whithead's  wife,  Goodw.  Benham  the  elder,  Jer. 
Howe's  wife. 

"  5.  Widow  Peck,  Tho.  Johnson's  wife,  Goodw.  Ball,  Goodw. 
Mitchell,  Goody  Hull,  Goodw.  Thorp,  Goodw.  Wakefield. 

"  In  the  short  seat. 
"  Goodw.  Nash  the  elder,  Roger  Alling's  wife. 

"  In  the  seat  before  them, 
"  Goodw.  Pigg,  Goodw.  Browne. 

"/«  the  side  seats  all  along, 

"  I.  Mrs.  Daniell,  Mrs.  Mullener,  Mrs.  Powell,  Goodw. 
Chidsey. 

"  2.  Goodw.  Mix,  Mrs.  Hodson,  Goodw.  Patteson,  Goodw. 
Beckley. 

"  3.  Goodw.  Moss,  Goodw.  Thomas.  Goodw.  Doolittle, 
Goodw.  Alsop. 

"  4.  Goodw.  Bassett,  Goodw.  Smith,  Goodw.  Gibbons,  Goodw. 
Morris. 


APPENDIX  IV.  549 

"  5.  Goodw.  Ford,  Goodw.  Rowe,  Goodw.  Winston,  Goodw. 
HUl. 

"  5.  Goodw.  Tichener,  Goodw.  Leeke,  Goodw.  Pennington, 
Goodw.  Pardee. 

"  6.  Goodw.  Barnes,  Goodw.  Merriman,  Jno.  Benham's  wife, 
Edwa.  Camp's  wife. 

"  8.  Goodw.  Mallory,  Goodw.  Atkinson,  Goodw.  Marsh, 
Goodw.  Hodskins. 

"  Before  Mrs,  Eaton's  seat, 

"  Goodw.  Harriman,  Goodw.  Glover,  Goodw.  Andrews,  James 
Russell's  wife. 

"  Before  the  piUar. 
"  Goodw.  Low,  Goodw.  Elsey. 

"  Before  Dea,  Miles*  seat, 
"  Goodw.  Whitnell,  Goodw.  Watson,  Goodw.  Halbidge. 

"  Before  Mrs,  Ailertoh's  seat, 
"  Goodw.  Judson,  Goodw.  Mansfield,  Goodw.  Cooper. 

"  Permitted  to  sit  in  the  alley  {upon  their  desire)  for  conven- 
ience of  hearing, 

"  Goodw.  Beecher  the  elder,  Goodw.  Munson,  Goodw.  Boy- 
kin,  Goodw.  Beamont,  old  Goodw.  Johnson." 

Another  seating  of  the  meeting-house  is  recorded  Feb.  20,  fCOl^ 

i66f 

"  In  the  long  seats  for  men, 

"  I.  Mr.  Gilbert,  with  such  other  as  may  be  called  to  ma- 
gistracy. 

"  2.  Mr.  Jones,  Mr.  John  Davenport,  Jr.,  Mr.  Yale,  Mr. 
William  Gibbard. 


5  so  APPENDIX  IV, 

**3.  Mr.  Goodenhouse,  Mr.  Tuttle,  William  Judson,  John 
GibbSy  Lieut  Nash. 

"4.  Mr.  Hodson,  William  Andrews,  John  Cooper,  Rc^r 
Ailing,  James  Bishop. 

''  5.  William  Thompson,  William  Potter,  Matthew  Moulthrop, 
Christopher  Todd,  William  Bradley,  John  Harriman. 

"  6.  Henry  Glover,  Nicholas  Elsey,  John  Moss,  John  Thomp- 
son,  John  Brockett,  John  Winston,  Thomas  Mix. 

"  7.  Jeremy  Howe,  Nathaniel  Merriman,  Thomas  Barnes, 
George  Smith,  Timothy  Ford,  Ralph  Lines,  William  Gibbons. 

"  8.  Robert  Hill,  William  Meeker,  Ephraim  Howe,  Thomas 
Harrison,  Matthew  Rowe,  John  Johnson,  Joseph  Mansfield. 

"  9.  Edward  Parker,  Thomas  Lamson,  William  Trowbridge 
John  AUing,  Edward  Preston. 

"  In  the  short  seats  at  the  upper  end, 

"  I.  Mr.  Rutherford,  Mr.  Mullener,  John  Punderson,  David 
Atwater. 

"  2.  Mr.  Field,  Mr.  Augur,  Mr.  Nathanael  Street,  Ensign 
Munson. 

"3.  Sergt  Whitehead,  Sergt.  Russell,  Joseph  Alsop,  John 
Chidsey. 

"4.  Thomas  Trowbridge,  Thomas  Johnson,  Jeremiah  Os- 
borne, Allen  Ball. 

"  In  the  long  seat  next  the  wall. 
"  John  Gilbert,  Geo.  Pardee,  Wm.  Holt 

"  In  the  little  seat. 
"  Thomas  Kimberley,  James  RusselL 

"  Before  this  seat. 
"  Hen.  Gibbons,  Wm.  Bassett 


AFPEITDIX  IV,  551 

"  In  the  side  seats  above  fhe  door, 

"Thos.  Powell,  William  Paine,  James  Clarke,  Abraham 
Doolittle. 

"  2.  Matthias  Hitchcock,  Andrew  Low,  Benj.  Wilmot,  John 
Thomas,  Humph.  Spinage. 

"  3.  Edward  Patteson,  John  Tuttle,  Richard  Sperry. 

"4.  John  Sacket,  Sam.  Marsh,  Peter  Mallery,  Robert  Foot. 

*'  Below  the  door. 

"  I.  John  Potter,  Abraham  Dickerman,  Isaac  Beecher,  Thos. 
Kimberley,  Jr. 

"  2.  Jonathan  Tuttle,  James  Eaton,  John  Clark,  Isaac  Turner. 

"  3.  John  Benham,  Geo.  Ross,  Martin  Tichener,  Philip 
Leeke. 

"4.  Anthony  Elcot,  Joseph  Benham,  Richard  Newman, 
Joseph  Potter. 

"5.  Henry  Morrell,  Samuel  Hodskins,  John  Brown,  Wm. 
Pringle. 

^^  Against  the  soldiers'  seats, 

"i.  Sam.  Blackley,  Will.  Wooden,  Hen.  Humiston,  Wm, 
Wilmot. 

"  2.  Ellis  Mew,  James  Brooks,  John  Osbill,  James  Dennison. 
"  3.  Wm.  Chatterton,  John  Ware. 

"  Before  the  governor^ s  seat, 
"  Thos.  Wheeler,  Wm.  Thorp,  Richard  Hull,  Francis  Brown. 

"  Before  Deacon  Miles  his  seat, 
"Jeremiah  Whitnell,  Thos.  Morris,  Richard  Johnson. 

''On  the  steps, 
"John  Jackson. 


552  APPENDIX  IV. 

"Before  Mr.  Rutherford ^s  seat. 
"  Hen.  Bristow,  John  HaU,  Thos.  Beamont,  Hen.  Lines. 

"Before  the  pillar. 
"Jeremiah  Hull,  Edward  Perkins. 


it 


In  the  long  seats  for  women. 

"  I.  Mrs.  Goodyear,  Mrs.  GObert. 

"  2.  Mrs.  Gregson,  Mrs.  Davenport,  Mrs.  Street,  Mrs.  Jones. 

"  3.  Sister  Miles,  Sister  Peck,  Sister  Lindon,  Sister  Tuttle, 
Sister  Gibbard. 

"  4.  Sister  Davis,  Sister  Gibbs,  Sister  Rutherford,  Sister  Hod- 
son,  Sister  Nash. 

"5.  Sister  Atwater,  Sister  Johnson,  sen..  Sister  Judson,  Sister 
Bishop,  Sister  Mix. 

"  6.  Sister  Bradley,  Sister  Todd,  Sister  Moss,  Sister  Moul- 
throp,  Goodwife  Potter,  Wm.  Russell's  wife. 

"  7.  Sister  Osborne,  Sister  Thompson,  Sister  Talmadge,  Sister 
Brockett,  Sister  Smith,  Sister  Doolittle. 

"  8.  Goodwife  Mansfield,  Good  wife  Hitchcock,  Goodwife 
Harrison,  Sister  Merriman,  Sister  Barnes,  John  Johnson's  wife. 

"  9.  Ephraim  Howe's  wife,  Ralph  Lines's  wife,  John  Potter's 
wife,  Goodwife  Spinage,  Benj.  Wilmot's  wife,  John  Alling's  wife. 

"  In  the  short  seats  at  the  upper  end. 

"  I.  Mrs.  Allerton,  Mrs.  Mullener,  Mrs.  Yale,  Hannah  Lam- 
berton. 

"  2.  Sistei  Punderson,  Sister  Kimberly,  Sister  Elsey. 

"3.  Thomas  Trowbridge's  wife,  Wm.  Trowbridge's  wife, 
Sister  Thorp,  Sister  Daniel. 

"  4.  Sister  Howe,  Thos.  Johnson's  wife.  Sister  Brown,  Good- 
wife  Paine. 


APPENDIX  IV,  553 

"/«  the  long  seat  next  the  wall, 

"  Sister  Mitchell,  Sister  Low,  Sister  Holt,  Sister  Hall,  Sister 
Morris,  Goodwife  Ford,  Sister  Jackson. 

"  In  the  little  short  seat. 
"  Sister  Ailing,  Sister  Parmelee. 

"  Before  this  seat, 
"  Sister  Pennington,  Sister  Bristow. 

"  In  the  side  seats  above  the  door, 

"  I.  Sister  Powell,  Sister  Jones,  Sister  Chidsey,  Goodwife 
Alsop. 

"  2.  Sister  Whitehead,  Sister    Humiston,   Sister  Bassett. 

"3.  Goodwife  Pardee,  Sister  Thomas,  Goodwife  Gibbons, 
Goodwife  Rowe. 

"4.  Goodwife  Meeker,  Sister  Marsh,  John  Tattle's  wife, 
Thos.  Tuttle's  wife. 

"  Below  the  door, 

"  Sister  Tichener,  Sister  Leeke,  Goodwife  Dickerman,  Good- 
wife  Foot. 

"  2.  John  Benham's  wife,  Joseph  Benham's  wife,  Edward 
Preston's  wife,  Goodwife  Hodskins. 

"  3.  Goodwife  Mallery,  Hen.  Lines*s  wife,  John  Brown's  wife, 
Goodwife  Beecher. 

"  4.  Goodwife  Newman,  Goodwife  Humiston,  Joseph  Pot- 
ter's wife,  Goodwife  Wooden. 

"  Before  Deacon  Peck's  seat. 
"  Sister  Parker,  Sister  Beamont,  Goodwife  Ball. 

^* Before  Mrs.  Goodyear^ s  seat. 

"Sister  Harriman,  Sister  Glover,  Sister  Munson,  James 
Russell's  wife. 


554  APPENDIX  IV. 

"  Before  Mrs.  AUertotCs  seat. 
*'  Sister  Field,  Sister  Clark,  Goodwife  Speny. 

'' Before  the  pillar. 

"  Sister  Cooper. 

"  Sister  Andrews  and  Sister  Boykin  had  liberty,  for  conven- 
ience  of  hearing,  to  sit  in  the  alley." 


APPENDIX  V. 

HOPKINS  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL. 
[The  full  text  of  Mr.  DaTcnport's  Deed  of  Tnut  mentioned  oo  p.  39X.] 

To  all  Christian  people  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  I 
John  Davenport,  sen.,  pastor  of  the  Church  of  Christ  at  New 
Haven  in  New  England,  send  greeting : 

Whereas  Edward  Hopkins,  Esquire,  sometime  of  Hartford  in 
the  colony  of  Connecticut  in  New  England  aforesaid,  governor, 
and  since  in  Old  England  deceased,  by  his  last  will  and  testament 
in  writing,  bearing  date  the  7th  of  March,  1657,  did  give  and 
bequeath  to  his  father-in-law  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esquire,  then 
governor  of  New  Haven  colony,  the  said  John  Davenport,  Mr. 
John  CuUick  and  Mr.  William  Goodwin  sometime  of  Hartford 
aforesaid,  all  the  residue  and  remainder  of  his  estate  in  New 
England  (his  due.debts  being  first  paid  and  legacies  discharged), 
and  also  the  sum  of  ^^500  out  of  his  estate  in  Old  England 
within  six  months  after  the  decease  of  his  wife,  Mrs.  Anne 
Hopkins,  by  the  advice  of  Mr.  Robert  Thompson  and  Mr. 
Francis  Willoughby  to  be  made  over  and  conveyed  into  the 
hands  of  the  said  trustees  in  New  England,  in  full  assurance  of 
their  trust  and  faithfulness  in  dispose  of  the  said  remainder 
of  his  estate  in  New  England  and  of  the  said  ^^500  in  Old 
England,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  purpose  of  him,  the 
said  Edward  Hopkins,  declared  in  his  said  will,  viz.,  for  the  en- 
couragement and  breeding  up  of  hopeful  youths,  both  at  the 
grammar  school  and  college,  for  the  public  service  of  the  coun- 

55S 


5S6  APPENDIX   V, 

try  in  these  foreign  plantations,  as  in  and  by  the  will  doth  and 
may  more  fully  and  at  large  appear. 

And  whereas  the  said  Mr.  William  Goodwin  and  the  said 
John  Davenport,  the  only  surviving  trustees  of  the  above-named 
Edward  Hopkins,  by  an  instrument  or  writing  under  our  hands 
and  seals  bearing  'date  the  27th  of  April,  1664,  have  agreed 
upon  an  equitable  division,  settlement,  and  dispose  of  the  said 
remainder  of  estate  above  mentioned,  received  or  secured  by 
us  severally,  or  our  attomies,  and  of  the  said  ;;^500,  to  the  use 
or  uses  aforesaid ;  whereby  the  sum  of  ^^412,  piart  of  the  said 
remainder  besides  the  full  moiety  or  half  part  of  the  said  ^500, 
when  it  shall  become  due  and  received  as  aforesaid,  is  by  me, 
the  said  John  Davenport,  to  be  disposed  of  according  to  the  true 
intent  and  meaning  of  the  said  testator,  as  in  the  said  instrument 
or  writing  agreed  upon  :  Know  ye  therefore  that  I,  the  said 
John  Davenport,  in  pursuance  of  the  said  trust  in  me  reposed, 
and  that  the  grammar  school  or  college  at  New  Haven  already 
founded  and  begun  may  be  provided  for,  maintained,  and  con- 
tinued for  the  encouragement  and  bringing  up  of  hopeful 
youths  in  the  languages  and  other  good  literature,  for  the  public 
use  and  senice  of  the  country,  according  to  the  sincere  and 
true  intent  of  the  donor  as  above  mentioned,  and  to  no  other 
use,  intent,  or  purpose  whatsoever,  do  give,  grant,  infeofT,  and 
confirm,  and  have  by  these  presents  given,  granted,  infeoffed, 
and  confirmed  unto  Mr.  William  Jones,  assistant  of  the  colony 
of  Connecticut,  the  reverend  Mr.  Nicholas  Street,  teacher  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  at  New  Haven,  Mr.  Matthew  Gilbert,  Mr. 
John  Davenport,  jun.  and  James  Bishop,  commissioned  magis- 
trates, Deacon  William  Peck,  and  Roger  Ailing,  and  to  their 
successors  to  be  nominated,  appointed,  and  chosen  as  hereafter 
in  these  presents  is  ordered  and  directed,  the  said  sum  of  ^41 2, 
and  the  said  moiety  or  half-part  of  the  said  ^500,  and  all  and 
ever)'  other  sum  or  sums  of  money,  or  other  estate  which  is  or 
may  be  due  by  virtue  of  the  aforesaid  grant  or  agreement  for- 


APPENDIX  V.  557 

ever,  under  the  name  or  title  of  the  Committee  of  Trustees  for 
the  said  trust,  invested  hereby  with  full  power  and  authority  to 
improve  and  dispose  of  the  said  sums  or  estate  as  before  ex- 
pressed, and  to  oversee,  regulate,  order,  and  direct  the  said 
grammar  or  collegiate  school  according  to  their  best  skill,  under- 
standing, and  ability,  in  pursuance  of  the  said  trust  and  ends, 
in  full  assurance  that  they,  the  said  committee  and  their  suc- 
cessors regularly  chosen  and  appointed,  shall  so  manage  and 
dispose  of  the  said  sums  or  other  estate  herein  mentioned,  to  the 
true  ends,  purposes,  and  intents  of  the  said  donor,  in  his  last  will 
and  testament  declared  and  expressed,  and  to  the  true  meaning 
and  intent  of  me,  the  said  John  Davenport,  in  these  presents 
before  declared  and  directed,  or  to  be  hereby  further  declared 
and  directed,  and  not  otherwise :  that  is  to  say,  for  the  pur- 
chasing a  farm  or  farms  for  a  yearly  revenue  for  the  school- 
master, or  building  such  dwelling-house  for  the  schoolmaster 
as  the  said  committee,  their  successors,  or  the  major  part  of 
them,  shall  judge  necessary  and  convenient ;  and  the  said  house 
and  present  school-house  (being  granted  and  confirmed  by  the 
said  town  of  New  Haven  for  the  use  of  the  said  school)  to 
uphold,  maintain,  and  keep  in  good  and  sufficient  repair  from 
time  to  time,  out  of  the  rents,  issues,  and  profits  of  the  said 
money  or  estate  so  given  and  granted  as  aforesaid.  And  the 
said  committee,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  or  of  their  suc- 
cessors, meeting  together  from  time  to  time,  in  some  convenient 
place  and  agreeing,  are  hereby  fully  empowered  and  authorized 
to  consult,  determine,  and  conclude,  act,  and  do  in  the  prem- 
ises as  is  above  ordained,  appointed,  and  directed,  and  to 
conclude,  act,  and  do,  all  other  thing  or  things  thereabouts  in 
pursuance  of  the  said  trust  and  the  true  meaning  and  intent 
of  the  foresaid  donor,  as  fully  and  amply  as  I,  the  said  John  Dav- 
enport, by  virtue  of  the  trust  to  me  committed  in  and  by  the 
said  will,  or  by  any  other  way  or  means  whatsoever  might  law- 
fully do  in  the  dispose  of  the  said  estate,  all,  or  any  part  of  it, 


5S8  APPENDIX   V. 

to  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and  do  further  invest  them^  the  said 
committee  and  their  successors,  and  the  major  part  of  them, 
with  full  power,  authority,  and  trust,  to  order,  regulate,  and 
direct  the  said  collegiate  school,  by  such  laws  and  rules  as  are 
by  me  provided,  or  shall  be  further  as  additional  by  them,  or 
the  major  part  of  them,  judged  necessary  and  expedient  for  the 
better  ordering,  regulating,  and  directing  of  the  said  school  for 
the  advancement  of  learning  and  good  government  therein ; 
and  to  make  choice  of  such  schoolmaster  (and  usher,  if  need 
be)  as  they  shall  approve  of  to  be  sufficiently  qualified  to 
undertake  such  a  charge,  and  able  to  instruct  and  teach  the 
three  learned  languages,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  so  far  as 
shall  be  necessary  to  piepare  and  fit  youth  for  the  college ;  and 
to  state  and  allow  out  of  the  said  rents  and  profits  such  yearly 
stipend  and  salary  toward  his  or  their  encouragement  and  main- 
tenance as  they,  the  said  committee,  or  the  major  part  of  them, 
or  of  their  successors,  shall  judge  meet  and  convenient ;  and 
also  upon  just  grounds,  either  insufficiency,  wilful  neglect  of 
trust,  scandal,  or  the  like  causes,  to  exclude  or  remove  him  or 
them  upon  due  proof  and  conviction  of  such  offences,  and  to 
provide,  to  nominate,  and  choose  some  other  fit  person  or  per- 
sons in  his  or  their  room  and  place.  And  that  there  may  be  a 
certain  and  orderly  succession  of  able  and  fit  persons  to  manage 
the  several  trusts  herein  before  mentioned  in  the  room  and  place 
of  any  of  the  said  committee  or  trustees  before  named,  that 
shall  die  or  remove  his  or  their  dwelling  from  New  Haven  afore- 
said, the  said  committee,  or  the  major  part  of  them  surviving, 
shall  immediately,  or  at  furthest  within  three  months  after,  choose 
such  other  person  or  persons  of  known  integrity  and  faithful- 
ness, to  succeed  in  the  room  and  place  of  any  such  person  or 
persons  so  d>ing  or  removing  as  aforesaid,  that  the  work  may 
be  carried  on  (in  the  said  grammar  or  collegiate  school)  hereby 
committed  to  them,  that  so  learning  may  be  duly  encouraged 
and  furthered  therein,  in  the  training  up  of  such  hopeful  youth 


APPENDIX  y.  559 

as,  in  time,  by  the  blessing  of  God  jipon  good  endeavors,  may 
be  fitted  for  public  service  in  church  and  commonwealth,  for 
the  upholding  and  promoting  of  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  these  parts  of  the  earth,  according  to  the  true 
and  sincere  desire  and  ends  of  the  aforesaid  Worthy  Donor  in 
his  said  last  will  and  testament  mentioned  and  expressed.  And 
because  I  stand  under  an  engagement  to  attend  the  will  of  the 
said  donor  deceased,  that  his  ends  may  be  attained  in  the 
dispose  of  his  said  legacy,  if  the  said  committee  or  their  suc- 
cessors shall  find  the  said  ends  by  this  ^grant  not  attained  at 
New  Haven,  and  that  the  said  grammar  or  collegiate  school 
hereby  endowed  and  provided  for,  should  be  dissolved  and 
wholly  cease,  I  do  obtest  them  by  the  will  of  the  dead,  which 
no  man  may  alter,  and  by  the  trust  committed  to  me  and 
them,  whereof  we  must  give  our  account  to  the  great  Judge 
of  all,  that  this  gift  of  the  said  Edward  Hopkins,  Esquire,  de- 
ceased, be  by  them  the  said  committee  wholly  transferred  and 
disposed  of  elsewhere,  where  the  said  ends  may  be  attained. 
But  if  the  true  ends  of  the  testator  and  of  this  settlement  be 
attained  at  New  Haven,  I  stand  firm  to  the  place  in  this  my 
grant,  reserving  nevertheless  to  myself  in  all  cases,  matters,  and 
things  respecting  the  hying  out  or  improvement  of  the  said 
estate,  as  aforesaid,  for  the  said  school,  full  power  of  a  negative 
voice  whilst  it  shall  please  God  to  continue  my  living  and 
abiding  in  this  country,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  hinder  and  prevent 
any  act  or  acts,  thing  or  things,  to  be  acted  or  done  in  or  about 
the  premises,  to  the  detriment  of  the  said  estate,  or  contrary 
to  the  said  trust  to  me  committed  and  hereby  transferred  to  the 
said  committee  and  their  successors  aforesaid,  upon  this  further 
condition,  that  the  rent,  profit,  and  improvement  of  the  Oyster- 
shell  Field,  containing  by  estimation  forty  acres,  more  or  less, 
formerly  separated  and  reserved  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  a 
college  at  New  Haven,  and  also  one  other  field  commonly 
called  Mrs.  Eldred's  lot,  containing  by  estimation  three  acres 


560  APPENDIX   V, 

more  or  less,  be  to  the  use  of  the  said  school  at  New  Haven 
forever  settled,  ratified,  and  confirmed  by  the  said  town  accord- 
ingly. And  to  prevent  any  further  re-interruption  which  this 
settlement  by  me  made  may  meet  with  by  reason  of  a  former 
grant  of  the  abovesaid  sum  or  sums  of  money  and  estate  for 
encouragement  of  a  colony  school  at  New  Haven,  made  by  a 
memorandum  in  writing  under  my  hand,  containing  sundry 
particulars  to  that  purpose,  and  bearing  date  the  fourth  day 
of  the  fourth  month,  1660,  the  same  being  registered  in  the 
records  of  the  then  General  Court,  and  by  the  said  Court  at 
the  time  approved  and  accepted,  as  by  the  said  records,  page 
260,  doth  appear,  I  therefore,  the  said  John  Davenport,  in 
regard  that  the  said  Court  by  their  act  bearing  date  the  5  th 
of  November,  1662,  for  sundry  reasons  therein  alleged,  did  lay 
down  and  discharge  the  said  school,  and  withdraw  the  yearly 
exhibition  by  them  formerly  allowed,  whereby  (the  said  school 
being  so  dissolved)  the  said  grant  by  me  made  became  null 
and  void :  I  do  therefore  hereby  declare  the  same  to  be 
null  and  void  accordingly,  any  thing  in  the  said  writing  or 
memorandum  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  And  the  grant 
herein  made  of  the  premises  to  be  good  against  the  same,  and 
against  all  or  any  other  pretences  whatsoever,  according  to  my 
true  intent  and  meaning  herein  before  declared  and  expressed. 
In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  the 
eighteenth  day  of  the  second  month,  commonly  called  April, 
one  thousand  six  hundred,  sixty  and  eight. 

John  Davenport,  Senior. 


Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  John 
Davenport,  senior,  as  his  act  and  deed,  in  the  presence  of 

BENjA>riN  Ling, 
John  Hodson. 

This  is  a  true  record  of  the  original  examined  by  me. 

James  Bishop,  Recorder. 


APPENDIX  VL 

NEW   HAVEN'S   REMONSTRANCE. 

THE  Remonstrance  or  Declaration  sent  to  the   General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut  Colony  from  this  Court  is  as 
follows :  — 

Gentlemen,  —  The  professed  grounds  and  ends  of  your  and 
our  coming  into  these  parts  are  not  unknown,  being  plainly  ex- 
.  pressed  in  the  prologue  to  that  solemn  confederation  entered 
into  by  the  four  colonies  of  New  England,  printed  and  published 
to  the  world,  namely:  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  gospel  in  purity 
with  peace,  for  which  we  left  our  dear  native  country  and  were 
willing  to  undergo  the  difficulties  we  have  since  met  with  in  this 
wilderness,  yet  fresh  in  our  remembrance  ;  being  the  only  ends 
we  still  pursue,  having  hitherto  found  by  experience  so  much  of 
the  presence  of  God  ^vith  us,  and  of  his  goodness  and  compas- 
sion towards  us  in  so  doing  for  these  many  years.  Yet,  consid- 
ering how  unanswerable  our  returns  have  been  to  God,  how 
unfruitful,  unthankful,  and  unholy  under  so  much  means  of 
grace  and  such  liberties,  we  cannot  but  lament  the  same,  judge 
ourselves  and  justify  God,  should  he  now  at  last  (after  so  long 
patience  towards  us)  bring  desolating  judgments  upon  us,  and 
make  us  drink  of  the  dregs  of  that  cup  of  indignation  he  hath 
put  into  the  hands  of  his  people  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  or 
suffer  such  contentions  (in  just  displeasure)  to  arise  among  us 
as  may  hasten  our  calamity  and  increase  our  woe,  which  we 

pray  the  Lord  in  mercy  to  prevent.     And,  whereas,  in  the 

561 


S62  APPENDIX   VI. 

pursuance  of  said  ends,  and  upon  other  religious  and  ci\-il 
considerations,  as  the  security  of  the  interest  of  each  colony 
within  its  self  in  ways  of  righteousness  and  peace,  and  all  and 
every  of  the  said  colonies  from  the  Indians  and  other  enemies, 
they  did  judge  it  to  be  their  bounden  duty  for  mutual  strength 
and  helpfulness  for  the  future  in  all  their  said  concernments, 
to  enter  into  a  consociation  among  themselves,  thereupon  fully 
agreed  and  concluded  by  and  between  the  parties  or  jurisdic- 
tions in  divers  and  sundry  articles,  and  at  last  ratified  as  a  j>er- 
petual  confederation  by  their  several  subscriptions,  whereunto 
we  conceive  ourselves  bound  to  adhere,  until  with  satisfaction 
to  our  judgments  and  consciences  we  see  our  duty,  with  like 
unanimous  consent  of  the  confederates,  orderly  to  recede,  leav- 
ing the  issue  unto  the  most  wise  and  righteous  God. 

As  for  the  Patent  upon  your  petition  granted  to  you  by  his 
Majesty,  as  Connecticut  Colony,  so  far,  and  in  that  sense,  we 
object  not  against  it,  much  less  against  his  Majesty's  act  in  so 
doing,  the  same  being  a  real  encouragement  to  other  of  his 
subjects  to  obtain  the  like  favour  upon  their  humble  petition  to 
his  Royal  Highness  in  the  protection  of  their  persons  and  pur- 
chased rights  and  interests,  is  also  a  ground  of  hope  to  us. 
But,  if  the  line  of  your  Patent  doth  circumscribe  this  Colony 
by  your  contrivement,  without  our  cognizance  or  consent,  or 
regard  to  the  said  confederation  on  your  parts,  we  have  and 
must  still  testify  against  it,  as  not  consistent  (in  our  judgment) 
with  brotherly  love,  righteousness  and  peace.  And  that  this  Col- 
ony (for  so  long  time  a  confederate  jurisdiction,  distinct  from 
yours  and  the  other  colonies)  is  taken  in  under  the  administra- 
tion of  the  said  Patent  in  your  hands,  and  so  its  form  being 
dissolved,  and  distinction  ceasing,  there  being  no  one  line  or 
letter  in  the  Patent  expressing  his  Majest}'*s  pleasure  that  way, 
although  it  is  your  sense  of  it,  yet  we  cannot  so  apprehend,  of 
which  we  having  already  given  our  grounds  at  large  in  writing, 
we  shall  not  need  to  say  much  more,  nor  have  we  met  with 


APPENDIX  VI.  563 

any  argumentative  or  rational  convictions  from  you,  nor  do  we 
yet  see  cause  to  be  of  another  mind.  As  for  your  proceedings 
upon  pretence  of  the  Patent  towards  us,  or  rather  against  us,  in 
taking  sundry  inhabitants  of  this  Colony  under  your  protection 
and  government,  who  (as  you  say)  offered  themselves,  from 
which  a  good  conscience  and  the  obligation  under  which  most  of 
them  stood  to  this  Colony  should  have  restrained  them,  without 
the  consent  of  the  body  of  this  Colony  first  had,  and  in  concur- 
rence with  them,  upon  mature  deliberation  and  conviction  of  duty 
yet  wanting,  we  cannot  but  again  testify  against  as  disorderly  in 
them,  and  which  admission  on  your  parts  we  conceive  your 
Christian  prudence  might  have  easily  suspended,  for  prevention 
of  that  great  offence  to  the  consciences  of  your  confederate  breth- 
ren and  those  sad  consequences  which  have  followed,  disturbing 
the  peace  of  our  towns,  destroying  our  comforts,  and  hazard  of 
our  lives  and  liberties  by  their  frequent  threats  and  unsufferable 
provocations,  hath  been  and  is  with  us  a  matter  of  complaint 
both  to  God  and  man ;  especially  when  we  consider  that  thus 
you  admitted  them,  and  put  power  into  their  hands,  before  you 
had  made  any  overture  to  us  or  had  any  treaty  with  us  about  so 
weighty  a  business,  as  if  you  were  in  haste  to  make  us  misera- 
ble, as  indeed  in  these  things  we  are  at  this  day. 

And  seeing  upon  the  answer  returned  to  your  propositions 
made  by  you  afterwards  of  joining  with  you  in  your  govern- 
ments, finding  ourselves  so  already  dismembered,  and  the 
weighty  grounds  and  reasons  we  then  presented  to  you,  we 
could  not  prevail  so  far  with  you  as  to  procure  a  respite  of  your 
further  proceedings  until  Mr.  Winthrop's  return  from  England, 
or  the  grant  of  any  time  that  way,  which  was  thought  but  rea- 
sonable by  some  of  yourselves,  and  the  like  seldom  denied  in 
war  to  very  enemies,  we  saw  it  then  high  time  and  necessary 
(fearing  these  beginnings)  to  appeal  unto  his  Majesty,  and  so 
we  did,  concluding  according  to  the  law  of  appeals  in  all  cases 
and  among  all  nations,  that  the  same  (upon  your  allegiance  to 


564  APPENDIX   VL 

his  Majesty)  would  have  obliged  you  to  forbear  all  further  pro- 
cess in  this  business,  for  our  own  parts  resolving  (notwithstand- 
ing all  that  we  had  formerly  suffered)  to  sit  down  patient  undei 
the  same,  waiting  upon  God  for  the  issue  of  our  said  app>eal. 

But  seeing  that  notwithstanding  all  that  we  had  presented  to 
you  by  word  and  writing,  notwithstanding  our  appeal  to  his 
Majesty,  notwithstanding  all  that  we  have  suffered  (by  means 
of  that  power  you  had  set  up,  viz.,  a  constable  at  Stamford),  of 
which  informations  have  been  given  you,  yet  you  have  gone 
further  to  place  a  constable  at  Guilford,  in  like  manner,  over  a 
party  tfiere,  to  the  further  disturbance  of  our  peace  and  quiet, 
a  narrative  whereof,  and  of  the  provocations  and  wrongs  we 
have  met  with  at  Stamford,  we  have  received,  attested  to  us  by 
divers  witnesses,  honest  men,  we  cannot  but  on  behalf  of  our 
appeal  to  his  Majesty,  whose  honor  is  highly  concerned  therein, 
and  of  our  just  rights,  but  (as  men  exceedingly  afflicted  and 
grieved)  testify  in  the  sight  of  God,  angels,  and  men,  against 
these  things ;  our  end  therein  being  not  to  provoke  or  further 
any  offence,  but  rather,  as  a  discharge  of  duty  on  our  parts  as 
brethren  and  Christian  confederates,  to  call  upon  you  to  take 
some  effectual  course  to  ease  and  right  us  in  a  due  redress  of 
the  grievances  you  have  caused  by  these  proceedings,  such, 
and  that  after  you  had  complimented  us  with  large  offers  of 
patent  privileges,  with  desire  of  a  treaty  with  us  for  union  of  our 
colonies.  And  you  know  as  your  good  words  were  kindly 
accepted,  so  your  motion  was  fairly  answered  by  our  commit- 
tee, that  in  regard  we  were  under  an  appeal  to  his  Majesty, 
that  being  limited  by  our  freemen  not  to  conclude  any  thing 
for  altering  our  distinct  colony  state  and  government  without 
their  consent  and  without  the  approbation  of  the  other  con- 
federate colonies,  they  were  not  in  present  capacity  so  to  treat ; 
but  did  little  suspect  such  a  design  on  foot  against  us,  the  effect 
whereof  quickly  appeared  at  Guilford  before  mentioned.  But 
we  shall  say  no  more  at  this  time,  only  to  tell  you,  whatever  we 


APPENDIX  VL  565 

suffer  by  your  means,  we  pray  the  Lord  would  help  us  to  choose 
it  rather  than  to  sin  against  our  consciences,  hoping  the  right- 
eous God  will  in  due  time  look  upon  our  afHiction,  and  incline 
his  Majesty's  heart  to  favor  our  righteous  cause. 

Subscribed  in  the  name  and  by  order  of  the  General  Court 
of  New  Haven  Colony.  V  James  Bishop, 

Secretary. 
New  Haven,  May  6,  i665. 


APPENDIX   VII. 

NEW  HAVEN'S  CASE  STATED. 

[  To  tht  honored  John  IVinihrop,  Esq^  Governor^  or  to  the  honored 
Major  Mason^  Deputy  Governor  of  Connecticut  Colony ^  to  be 
communicated  to  the  honored  the  General  Assembly  for  the  said 
Colony^ 

Honored  and  Beloved  in  the  Lord, — We,  the  General 
Court  of  New  Haven  Colony,  being  sensible  of  the  wrongs 
which  this  Colony  hath  lately  suffered  by  your  unjust  pretences 
and  encroachments  upon  our  just  and  proper  rights,  have 
unanimously  consented,  though  with  grief  of  heart,  being  com- 
pelled thereunto,  to  declare  unto  you  and  unto  all  whom  the 
knowledge  thereof  may  concern,  what  yourselves  do  or  may 
know  to  be  true,  as  followeth, 

I.  That  the  first  beginners  of  these  plantations  by  the  sea- 
side in  these  western  parts  of  New  England,  being  engaged  to 
sundry  friends  in  London  and  in  other  places  about  London, 
(who  purposed  to  plant,  some  with  them  in  the  same  town,  and 
others  as  near  to  them  as  they  might,)  to  provide  for  themselves 
some  convenient  places  by  the  sea-side,  arrived  at  Boston  in  the 
Massachusetts  (having  a  special  right  in  their  Patent,  two  of 
them  being  joint  purchasers  of  it  with  others,  and  one  of  them 
a  patentee  and  one  of  the  assistants  chosen  for  the  New  Elng- 
land  Company  in  London,)  where  they  abode  all  the  winter 
following,  but  not  finding  there  a  place  suitable  for  their  pur- 
pose, were  persuaded  to  view  these  parts,  which  those  that 
\iewed  approved,  and  before  their  removal,  finding  that  no 
566 


APPENDIX   VII.  567 

English  were  planted  in  any  place  from  the  fort  (called  Say- 
brook)  to  the  Dutch,  purposed  to  purchase  of  the  Indians,  the 
natural  proprietors  of  those  lands,  that  whole  tract  of  land  by 
the  sea-coast  for  themselves  and  those  that  should  come  to 
them,  which  they  also  signified  to  their  friends  at  Hartford  in 
Connecticut  Colony,  and  desired  that  some  fit  men  firom  thence 
might  be  employed  in  that  business,  at  their  proper  cost  and 
charges  who  wrote  to  them.  Unto  which  letter  having  received 
a  satisfying  answer,  they  acquainted  the  court  of  magistrates  of 
Massachusetts  Colony  with  their  purpose  to  remove  and  the 
grounds  of  it,  and  with  their  consent  began  a  plantation  in  a 
place  situated  by  the  sea,  called  by  the  Indians  Quillipiac, 
which  they  did  purchase  of  the  Indians  the  true  proprietors 
thereof,  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  and  have  quietly 
possessed  the  same  about  six  and  twenty  years,  and  have  buried 
great  estates  in  buildings,  fencings,  clearing  the  ground,  and  in 
all  sorts  of  husbandry,  without  any  help  from  Connecticut  or 
dependence  upon  them.  And  by  voluntary  consent  among 
themselves  they  settled  a  civil  court  and  government  among 
themselves,  upon  such  fundamentals  as  were  established  in 
Massachusetts  by  allowance  of  their  patent,  whereof  the  then 
governor  of  the  Bay,  the  Right  Worshipful  Mr.  Winthrop  sent 
us  a  copy  to  improve  for  our  best  advantage.  These  funda- 
mentals all  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  Quillipiac  approved,  and 
bound  themselves  to  submit  unto  and  maintain,  and  chose 
Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq. ;  to  be  their  governor,  with  as  good 
right  as  Connecticut  settled  their  government  among  them- 
selves and  continued  it  above  twenty  years  without  any  patent. 

2.  That  when  the  help  of  Mr.  Eaton  our  governor  and  some 
others  from  Quillipiac  was  desired  for  ending  of  a  contro- 
versy at  VV^ethersfield,  a  town  in  Connecticut  Colony ;  it  being 
judged  necessary  for  peace  that  one  party  should  remove  their 
[371]  dwellings,  upon  equal  satisfying  terms  proposed,  the 
governor,  magistrates,  etc.,  of  Connecticut  offered  for  their  part 


APPENDIX   VIL  569 

sea-side,  to  vindicate  the  right  of  the  English,  without  consult- 
ing Connecticut,  or  seeking  their  concurrence  therein. 

5.  That  in  the  year  1643,  upon  weighty  considerations,  an 
union  of  four  distinct  colonies  was  agreed  upon  by  all  New 
England  (except  Rhode  Island)  in  their  several  general  courts, 
and  was  established  by  a  most  solemn  confederation,  whereby 
they  bound  themselves  mutually  to  preserve  unto  each  colony 
its  entire  jurisdiction  within  itself  respectively,  and  to  avoid  the 
putting  of  two  into  one  by  any  act  of  their  own  without  consent 
of  the  commissioners  from  the  four  united  colonies,  which  were 
from  that  time  and  still  are  called  and  known  by  the  title  of  the 
four  United  Colonies  of  New  England ;  of  these  colonies  New 
Haven  was  and  is  one.  And  in  this  solemn  confederation 
Connecticut  joined  with  the  rest  and  with  us. 

6.  That  in  the  year  1644,  the  General  Court  for  New  Haven 
Colony,  then  sitting  in  the  town  of  New  Haven,  agreed  unani- 
mously to  send  to  England  for  a  Patent,  and  in  the  year  1645, 
committed  the  procuring  of  it  to  Mr.  Gregson*,  one  of  our  ma- 
gistrjltes,  who  entered  upon  his  voyage  in  January  that  year  from 
New  Haven,  furnished  with  some  beaver  in  order  thereunto  as 
we  suppose,  but  by  the  providence  of  God,  the  ship  and  all  the 
passengers  and  goods  were  lost  at  sea  in  their  passage  toward 
England,  to  our  great  [loss]  and  the  frustration  of  that  design 
for  that  time ;  after  which  the  troubles  in  England  put  a  stop 
to  our  proceedings  therein.  This  was  done  with  the  consent 
and  desire  of  Connecticut  to  concur  with  New  Haven  therein ; 
whereby  the  difference  of  times  and  of  men's  spirits  in  them 
may  be  discovered,  for  then  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut 
with  consent  of  their  General  Court  knowing  our  purposes, 
desired  to  join  with  New  Haven  in  procuring  that  patent 
for  common  privileges  to  both  in  their  distinct  jurisdictions, 
and  left  it  to  Mr  Eaton's  wisdom  to  have  the  patent  framed 
accordingly.  But  now  they  seek  to  procure  a  patent  without 
the  concurrence  of  New  Haven,  and  contrary  to  our  minds 


570  APPEA'D/X   VII. 

expressed  before  this  patent  was  sent  for,  and  to  their  * 
promise,  and  to  the  terms  of  the  confederation ;  and  with 
sufficient  warrant  from  their  patent  they  have  invaded 
right,  and  seek  to  involve  New  Haven  under  Connecticut  jii 
diction. 

7.  That  in  the  year  1646,  when  the  commissionei^  firet  ] 
at  New  Haven,  Kieft,  the  then  Dutch  governor,  by  letters 
postulated  with  the  commissioners,  by  what  warrant  they  me 
New  Haven  without  hb  consent,  seeing  it  and  all  by  the  : 
coast  belonged  to  his  principals  in  Holland,  and  to  the  Lc 
the  States  General,  'fhe  answer  to  that  letter  was  framed 
Mr.  Eaton,  governor  of  New  Haven  and  then  president  of 
commission,  approved  by  all  the  commissioners,  and  sent 
their  names,  with  their  consent,  to  the  then  Dutch  goven 
who  never  replied  thereunto. 

8.  That  this  colony  in  the  reign  of  the  late  King  Charles 
first,  received  a  letter  from  the  committee  of  Lords  and  C< 
mons  for  foreign  plantations,  then  sitting  at  Westminster,  wh 
letter  was  delivered  to  our  governor  Mr.  Eaton,  for  freeing 
several  distinct  colonies  of  New  Elngland  from  molestations 
the  appealing  of  troublesome  spirits  unto  England,  wher 
they  declared  that  they  had  dismissed  all  causes  depend 
before  them  from  New  England,  and  that  they  advised 
inhabitants  to  submit  to  their  respective  governments  th 
established,  and  lo  acquiesce  when  their  causes  shall  be  th 
lieard  and  determined ;  as  it  is  to  be  seen  more  largely 
pressed  in  the  original,  which  we  have  subscribed. 

Your  assured  friends, 
Pem  BROOK,  Manchester,  Warwick, 

W.  Say  &  Seal,        Fr.  Dacre,  etc,        Denbigh. 

In  this  order  they  subscribed  their  names  with  their  own  hai 
which  we  have  to  show,  and  they  itiscribed  or  directed 
letter. 


APPENDIX   VII,  571 

To  our  worthy  friends ^  the  governor  and  assistants  of  the 
plantations  of  New  Haven,  in  New  England, 

Whereby  you  may  clearly  see  that  the  right  honorable  the 
earl  of  Warwick  and  the  lord  viscount  Say  and  Seal  (lately  one 
of  his  majesty's  that  now  is,  King  Charles  the  second  his  most 
honorable  privy  council,  as  also  the  right  honorable  earl  of 
Manchester  still  is,)  had  no  purpose,  after  New  Haven  Colony 
situated  by  the  sea-side  was  settled  to  be  a  distinct  government, 
that  it  should  be  put  under  the  patent  for  Connecticut,  whereof 
they  had  only  framed  a  copy,  before  any  house  was  erected  by 
the  sea-side  from  the  fort  to  the  Dutch,  which  yet  was  not 
signed  and  sealed  by  the  last  king  for  a  patent,  nor  had  you 
any  patent  till  your  agent  Mr.  Winthrop  procured  it  about  two 
years  since. 

9.  That  in  the  year  1650,  when  the  commissioners  for  the 
four  United  Colonies  of  New  England  met  at  Hartford,  the 
now  Dutch  governor  being  then  and  there  present,  Mr.  Eaton, 
the  then  governor  of  New  Haven  Colony,  complained  of  the 
Dutch  governor's  encroaching  upon  our  colony  of  New  Haven, 
by  taking  under  his  jurisdiction  a  township  beyond  Stamford, 
called  Greenwich.  All  the  commissioners  (as  well  for  Con- 
necticut as  for  the  other  colonies)  concluded  that  Greenwich 
and  four  miles  beyond  it  belongs  to  New  Haven  jurisdiction, 
whereunto  the  Dutch  governor  then  yielded,  and  restored  it  to 
New  Haven  Colony.  Thus  were  our  bounds  westward  settled 
by  consent  of  all. 

10.  That  when  the  honored  governor  of  Connecticut,  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  had  consented  to  undertake  a  voyage  for  Eng- 
land to  procure  a  patent  for  Connecticut,  in  the  [year]  1661,  a 
friend  warned  him  by  letter  not  to  have  his  hand  in  so  un- 
righteous an  act,  as  so  far  to  extend  the  line  of  their  patent 
that  the  colony  of  New  Haven  should  be  involved  within  it. 
For  answer  thereunto,  he  was  pleased  to  certify  that  friend  in 


572  APPENDIX   VII. 

two  letters  which  he  wrote  from  two  several  places  before  his 
departure,  that  no  such  thing  wjis  intended,  but  rather  the  con- 
trary, and  that  the  magistrates  had  agreed  and  expressed  in  the 
presence  of  some  ministers,  that  if  their  line  should  reach  us, 
(which  they  knew  not,  the  copy  being  in  Englartd,)  yet  New 
Haven  Colony  should  be  fU  TuU  Uberty  to  join  with  them  or 
not  This  agreement,  so  attested,  made  us  secure,  who  else 
could  have  procm«d  a  patent  for  ourselves,  within  our  own 
known  bounds,  according  to  purchase,  without  doing  any  wrong 
to  Connecticut  in  their  just  bounds  and  hmits. 

1 1.  That  notwithstanding  all  the  premises,  in  the  year  r66i, 
when  you  had  received  your  patent  tmder  his  majesty's  hand 
and  seal,  contrary  to  your  promise  and  solemn  confederation 
and  to  common  equity,  at  your  first  general  assembly  (which 
yet  could  not  be  called  general  without  us,  if  we  were  under 
your  patent,  seeing  none  of  us  were  by  you  called  thereunto,) 
you  agreed  among  yourselves  to  treat  with  New  Haven  Colony 
about  union,  by  your  commissioners  chosen  for  that  end,  within 
two  or  three  days  after  that  assembly  was  dissolved,  but  before 
the  ending  of  that  session  you  made  an  unrighteous  breach  in 
our  colony,  by  taking  under  your  patent  some  of  ours  from 
Stamford,  and  from  Guilford,  and  from  Southhold,  contrary  to 
your  engagements  to  New  Haven  Colony,  and  without  our  con- 
sent or  knowledge.  This  being  thus  done,  some  sent  from  you 
to  treat  with  us  showed  some  of  ours  your  patent,  which  being 
read,  they  declared  to  yours  that  New  Haven  Colony  is  not  at 
all  mentioned  in  your  patent,  and  gave  you  some  reasons  why 
they  believed  that  the  king  did  not  intend  to  put  this  colony 
under  Connecticut  without  our  desire  or  knowledge ;  and  they 
added  that  you  took  a  preposterous  course  in  first  dismembering 
this  colony,  and  after  that  treating  with  it  about  union,  which  is 
as  if  one  man  purposing  to  treat  with  another  about  union  first 
cut  off  from  him  an  arm  and  a  leg  and  an  ear,  then  to  treat 
with  him  about  union.    Re\'erend  Mr.  Stone  also,  the  teacher 


APPENDIX  VII,  573 

of  the  church  at  Hartford,  was  one  of  the  committee,  who 
being  asked  what  he  thought  of  this  action,  answered  that  he 
would  not  justify  it. 

12.  After  that  conference,  our  committee  sent,  by  order  of 
the  General  Court,  by  two  of  our  magistrates  and  two  of  our 
elders,  a  writing  containing  sundry  other  reasons  for  our  not 
joining  with  you,  who  also  finding  that  you  persisted  in  your 
own  will  and  way,  declared  to  you  our  own  resolution  to  appeal 
to  his  majesty  to  explain  his  true  intendment  and  meaning  in 
your  patent,  whether  it  was  to  subject  this  colony  under  it  or 
not ;  being  persuaded,  as  we  still  are,  that  it  neither  was  or  is 
his  royal  will  and  pleasure  to  confound  this  colony  with  yours, 
which  would  destroy  the  so  long  continued,  and  so  strongly 
settled  distinction  of  the  four  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land,  without  our  desire  or  knowledge. 

13.  That  accordingly  we  forthwith  sent  our  appeals  to  be 
humbly  presented  to  his  majesty  by  some  friends  in  London, 
yet  out  of  our  dear  and  tender  respect  to  Mr.  Winthrop's  peace 
and  honor,  some  of  us  advised  those  friends  to  communicate 
our  papers  first  to  honored  Mr.  Winthrop  himself,  to  the  end 
that  we  might  find  out  some  effectual  expedient  to  put  a  good 
end  to  this  uncomfortable  difference  between  you  and  us ;  else 
to  present  our  humble  address  to  his  majesty.  Accordingly  it 
was  done,  and  Mr.  Winthrop  stopped  the  proceeding  of  our 
appeal  by  undertaking  to  our  friends  that  matters  should  be 
issued  to  our  satisfaction,  and  in  order  thereunto  he  was 
pleased  to  write  a  letter  to  Major  Mason  your  deputy  governor, 
and  the  rest  of  the  court  of  Connecticut  Colony,  from  London, 
dated  March  3d,  1662,  in  these  words :  — 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  informed  by  some  gentlemen  who  are  authorized 
to  seek  remedy  here,  that  since  you  had  a  late  patent  there  hath  been 
injury  done  to  the  government  of  Newhaven,  and  in  particular  at  Guilford 
and  Stamford  in  admitting  several  of  the  inhabitants  there  unto  freedom 
with  you,  and  appointing  of&cers,  which  hath  caused  division  in  the  said 


574  APPENDIX   VI L 

towns,  which  may  prove  of  dangerous  consequence  if  not  timely  prevented, 
though  I  do  hope  the  rise  of  it  is  from  misunderstanding  and  not  in  design 
of  prejudice  to  that  colony,  for  whom  I  gave  assurance  to  their  friends 
that  their  rights  and  interests  should  not  be  disquieted  or  prejudiced  b\'  the 
patent.  But  if  both  governments  would  with  unanimous  agreement  unite 
in  one,  their  friends  judged  it  would  be  for  advantage  to  both ;  and  farther, 
I  must  let  you  know  that  testimony  here  doth  affirm  that  I  gave  assurance 
before  authority  here,  that  it  was  not  intended  to  meddle  with  any  town  or 
plantation  that  was  settled  under  any  other  government  Had  it  been  any 
otherwise  intended  or  declared,  it  had  been  injurious  in  taking  out  the 
patent  not  to  have  inserted  a  proportionable  number  of  their  names  in  it. 
Now  upon  the  whole,  having  had  serious  conference  with  their  friends 
authorized  by  them,  and  with  others  who  are  friends  to  both,  to  prevent 
a  tedious  and  chargeable  trial  and  uncertain  event  here,  I  promised  them 
to  give  you  speedily  this  representation,  how  far  you  are  engaged,  if  any 
injury  hath  been  done  by  admitting  of  freemen,  or  appointing  officers,  or 
any  other  intermeddling  with  New  Haven  Colony  in  one  kind  or  other  with- 
out approbation  of  the  governments,  that  it  be  forthwith  recalled,  and  that 
for  the  future  there  will  be  no  imposing  upon  them  nor  admitting  of  any 
members  without  mutual  consent,  but  that  all  things  be  acted  as  lov- 
ing, neighbouring  colonies,  as  before  such  patent  granted.  And  unto  this 
I  judge  you  are  obliged,  I  haveing  engaged  to  their  agents  here  that  this 
will  be  by  you  performed,  and  they  have  thereupon  forborne  to  give  you  or 
me  any  further  trouble.  But  they  do  not  doubt  but  upon  future  consider- 
ation there  may  be  such  a  right  understanding  between  both  governments 
that  a  union  and  friendly  joining  may  be  established  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all,  which  at  my  arrival  I  shall  endeavor  (God  willing)  to  promote.  Not 
having  more  at  present  in  this  case,  I  rest. 

Your  humble  servant 

John  Winthrop. 

The  copy  of  this  letter  was  sent  to  Mr.  Leete  unsealed,  with 
Mr.  Winthrop's  consent,  and  was  written  by  his  own  hand,  and 
the  substance  of  this  agreement  between  some  of  our  friends  in 
London  is  fully  attested  by  them  in  their  letters  to  some  of  us. 
Say  not  that  Mr.  Winthrop's  acting  in  this  agreement  is  nothing 
to  you,  for  he  acted  therein  as  your  public  and  common 
agent  and  plenipotentiary,  and  therefore  his  acting  in  that 
capacity  and  relation  are  yours  in  him. 


APPENDIX   VI L  575 

14.  That  after  Mr  Winthrop's  return,  when  some  from  you 
treated  again  with  our  committee  about  union,  it  was  answered 
by  our  committee  that  we  could  not  admit  any  treaty  with  you 
about  this  matter  till  we  might  treat  as  an  entire  colony,  our 
members  being  restored  to  us  whom  you  have  unrighteously 
withheld  from  us,  whereby  also  those  parties  have  been  many 
ways  injurious  to  this  government,  and  disturbers  of  our  peace ; 
which  is  and  will  be  a  bar  to  any  such  treaty  till  it  be  removed, 
for  till  then  we  cannot  join  with  you  in  one  government  without 
our  fellowship  in  your  sin. 

15.  That  after  this,  nothing  being  done  by  you  for  our  just  sat- 
isfaction, at  the  last  meeting  of  the  commissioners  from  the  four 

United  Colonies  of  New  England,  at  Boston  on  the day 

of  September,  1663,  the  commissioners  from  New  Haven  Colony 
exhibited  to  the  other  commissioners  their  confederates,  a  com- 
plaint of  the  great  injuries  done  to  this  colony  by  Connecticut, 
in  the  presence  of  your  commissioners,  who  for  answer  there- 
unto showed  what  treaties  they  had  made  with  New  Haven,  but 
that  plea  was  inconsiderable  through  your  persisting  in  un- 
righteously withholding  our  members  from  us,  whereby  our 
wounds  remain  unhealed,  being  kept  open  and  continually 
bleeding.  The  result  of  the  commissioner's  debates  about 
that  complaint  was  in  these  words,  "The  commissioners  of 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  having  considered  the  complaints 
exhibited  by  New  Haven  against  Connecticut,  for  infringing 
their  power  of  jurisdiction,  as  in  the  complaint  is  more  particu- 
larly expressed,  together  with  the  answer  returned  thereto  by 
Connecticut  commissioners,  with  some  other  debates  and  con- 
ferences that  have  passed  between  them,  do  judge  meet  to 
declare,  that  the  said  Colony  of  New  Haven  being  owned  in  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  as  distinct  from  Connecticut,  and 
having  been  so  owned  by  the  colonies  in  this  present  meeting, 
in  all  their  actings,  may  not  by  any  act  of  violence  have  their 
liberty  of  jurisdiction  infringed  by  any  other  of  the  United 


5/6  APPENDIX   VI L 

Colonies  without  breach  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and 
that  where  any  act  of  power  hath  been  exerted  against  their 
authority  that  the  same  ought  to  be  recalled,  and  their  power 
reserved  to  them  entire,  until  such  time  as  in  an  orderly  way  it 
shall  be  otherwise  disposed.  And  for  particular  grievances 
mentioned  in  their  complaint,  that  they  be  referred  to  the  next 
meeting  at  Hartford,"  etc. 

We  suppose  that  when  they  speak  of  disposing  it  otherwise 
in  an  orderly  way,  they  mean  with  our  free  consent,  there  being 
no  other  orderly  way  by  any  act  or  power  of  the  United  Colo- 
nies for  disposing  the  colony  of  New  Haven  otherwise  than  as  it 
is  a  distinct  colony,  having  entire  jurisdiction  within  itself, 
which  our  confederates  are  bound  by  their  solemn  confedera- 
tion to  pursue  inviolate. 

1 6.  That  before  your  general  assembly  in  October  last,  1663, 
our  committee  sent  a  letter  unto  the  said  assembly,  whereby 
they  did  request  that  our  members  by  you  unjustly  rent  from  us 
should  be  by  you  restored  unto  us,  according  to  our  former 
frequent  desires,  and  according  to  Mr.  Winthrop*s  letter  and 
promise  to  authority  in  England,  and  according  to  justice  and 
according  to  the  conclusion  of  the  commissioners  in  their  last 
session  at  Boston,  whereunto  you  returned  a  real  negative 
answer  contrary  to  all  the  promises,  by  making  one  Brown  your 
constable  at  Stamford ;  who  hath  been  sundry  ways  injurious  to 
us  and  hath  scandalously  acted  in  the  highest  degree  of  con- 
tempt, not  only  against  the  authority  of  this  jurisdiction  but 
also  of  the  king  himself,  pulling  down  with  contumelies  the 
declaration  which  was  sent  thither,  by  the  Court  of  magistrates 
for  this  colony,  in  the  king's  name,  and  commanded  to  be  set 
up  in  a  public  place  that  it  might  be  read  and  obeyed  by  all 
his  majesty's  subjects  inhabiting  our  town  of  Stamford. 

1 7.  That  thereupon  at  a  general  court  held  at  New  Haven  for 
the  jurisdiction,  the  2  2d  of  October,  1663,  the  deputies  for  this 
general  court  signified  the  mind  of  our  freemen  as  not  at  all 


APPENDIX   VII.  577 

satisfied  with  the  proposal  of  the  committee  from  Connecticut, 
but  thought  there  should  be  .no  more  treaty  with  them  unless 
they  first  restore  us  to  our  right  state  again.  The  matter  was 
largely  debated,  and  this  general  court  considering  how  they  of 
Connecticut  do  cast  off  our  motion  in  the  forementioned  letter 
and  give  us  no  answer,  but  that  contrary  thereunto,  as  is 
reported,  they  have  further  encouraged  those  at  Guilford  and 
Stamford,  therefore  this  court  did  then  order  that  no  treaty  be 
made  by  this  colony  with  Connecticut  before  such  acts  of 
power  exerted  upon  any  of  our  towns  be  revoked  and  recalled, 
according  to  honored  Mr.  Winthrop*s  letter  engaging  the  same, 
the  commissioners'  advice,  and  our  frequent  desires. 

1 8.  That  in  this  juncture  of  time  we  received  two  letters 
from  England,  mentioned  in  the  following  declaration  pub- 
lished by  the  court  of  magistrates  upon  that  occasion,  in  these 
words ;  Whereas  this  colony  hath  received  one  letter  under  his 
majesty's  royal  hand  and  seal  (manual  in  red  wax)  annexed, 
bearing  date  the  21st  of  June,  1663,  from  his  royal  court  at 
Whitehall,  directed  To  his  trusty  and  well  beloved  subjects  the 
governors  and  assistants  of  the  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  New 
Haven  and  Connecticut  colonies  in  New  England ;  and  one 
other  letter  from  the  lords  of  his  majesty's  most  honorable 
privy  council,  from  his  majesty's  court  aforesaid,  bearing  date 
the  24th  of  June  in  the  year  aforesaid,  superscribed.  For  his 
majesty's  special  service,  and  directed  To  our  very  loving 
friend  John  Endicott,  Esquire,  governor  of  his  majesty's  planta- 
tions in  New  England,  and  to  the  governor  and  council  of  the 
colony  of  the  Massachusetts,  with  the  rest  of  the  governors  of 
the  English  plantations  in  New  England  respectively,  and  by 
order  of  the  general  court  at  Boston  recorded  in  the  court  it  is 
particularly  directed  to  the  governor  of  the  colony  of  New- 
Haven  ;  in  which  letters  his  majesty  hath  commanded  this 
colony  many  matters  of  weight,  very  much  respecting  his  majes- 
ty's service  and  the  good  of  this  country  in  general,  expecting 


5/8  APPENDIX   VII. 

upon  displeasure  the  strict  obsen'ance  thereof,  which  this  Court 
(this  colony  being  situated  by  the  sea-side,  and  so  fitly  accom- 
modated to  fulfil  his  majesty's  commands)   are  resolved    to 
their  utmost  to  obey  and  fulfil     But  in  their  consultation 
thereabout,  they  find  through  the  disloyal  and  seditious  princi- 
ples and  practices  of  some  men  of  inconsiderable  interests, 
some  of  his  majesty's  good  subjects  in  this  colony  have  been 
seduced  to  rend  themselves  firom  this  colony,  by  which  divis- 
ion his  majesty's  affairs  in  these  parts  are  like  to  suffer,  the 
peace  of  this  country  to  be  endangered,  and  the  heathen 
among  us  scandalized,  in  case  some  speedy  course  be  not  taken 
for  the  prevention  thereof,  the  which  if  we  should  connive  at, 
especially  at  this  time  his  majesty  having  so  particularly  di- 
rected his  royal  commands  to  this  colony  aforesaid,  we  might 
justly  incur  his  displeasure  against  us.    This  court  therefore 
doth  in  his  majesty's  name  require  all  the  members  and  inhabit- 
ants of  this  colony  heartily  to  close  with  the  endeavors  of  the 
governor  and  assistants  thereof  for  fulfilling  his  majesty's  com- 
mands in  the  said  letter  expressed,  and  in  order  thereunto  to 
return  to  their  due  obedience  and  paying  their  arrears  of  rates 
for  defra)'ing  the  necessary  charges  of  the  colony,  and  other 
dues,  within  six  days  after  the  publication  hereof,  unto  such 
person  or  persons  as  are  or  shall  be  appointed  to  collect  the 
same,  in  attendance  to  the  laws  and  orders  of  this  colony.     All 
which  being  done  this  court  shall  forever  pass  by  all  former 
disobedience  to  this  government ;  but  if  any  shall  presume  to 
stand  out  against  his  majesty's  pleasure  so  declared  as  afore- 
said concerning  this  colony,  at  their  peril  be  it.    This  Court 
shall  not  fail  to  call  the  said  persons  to  a  strict  account  and 
proceed  against  them  as  disloyal  to  his  majesty  and  disturbers 
of  the  peace  of  this  colony,  according  to  law. 

19.  This  declaration  being  grounded  in  general  upon  his 
majesty's  commands  expressed  in  these  letters,  and  in  special 
in  order  to  the  preser\'ation  of  his  majesty's  customs  in  that 


APPENDIX  VI L  579 

case  provided  for  by  act  of  this  present  parliament,  which  act  was 
sent  inclosed  with  the  letter  to  our  governor,  requiring  his  strict 
observance  of  the  same  under  the  penalty  of  displacing  and  a 
thousand  pounds  fine,  and  therefore  in  case  any  difference 
should  arise  to  his  majesty  upon  these  accounts,  we  must  be 
inforced  to  lay  the  cause  of  it  at  your  door,  because  when  it 
was  sent  to  the  several  towns  of  this  colony,  and  set  up  in 
public  places  to  be  seen  and  read  of  all,  that  all  might  obey  it, 
it  was  at  Stamford  violently  plucked  down  by  Brown  your  con- 
stable, and  with  reproachful  speeches  rejected,  though  sent  in 
his  majesty's  name,  and  by  the  authority  of  our  court  of  magis- 
trates. And  after  it  was  published  at  Guilford,  Bray  Rosseter 
and  his  son  hastened  to  Connecticut  to  require  your  aid  against 
this  government,  which  accordingly  you  too  hastily  performed, 
for  on  the  30th  of  December,  1663,  two  of  your  magistrates 
with  sundry  young  men  and  your  marshal  came  speedily  to 
Guilford  accompanying  Rosseter  and  his  son,  and  countenan- 
cing them  and  their  party  against  the  authority  of  this  general 
Court,  though  you  know  how  obnoxious  they  were  formerly  to 
this  jurisdiction,  for  contempt  of  authority  and  seditious  prac- 
tices, and  that  they  have  been  the  ringleaders  of  this  rent,  and 
that  Bray  Rosseter  the  father  hath  been  long  and  still  is  a  man 
of  a  turbulent,  restless,  factious  spirit,  and  whose  design  you 
have  cause  to  suspect  to  be  to  cause  a  war  between  these  two 
colonies,  or  to  ruin  New  Haven  colony ;  yet  him  you  accom- 
panied in  opposition  to  this  colony,  without  sending  or  writing 
before  to  our  governor  to  be  informed  concerning  the  truth  in 
this  matter.  Sundry  horses,  as  we  are  informed,  accompanied 
them  to  Guilford,  whither  they  came  at  unseasonable  hour, 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  night  these  short  days,  when  you  might 
rationally  think  that  all  the  people  were  gone  to  bed,  and  by 
shooting  of  sundry  gims,  some  of  yours  or  of  their  party  in  Guil- 
ford alarmed  the  town,  which  when  the  governor  took  notice 
of,  and  of  the  unsatisf}nng  answer  given  to  such  as  inquired  the 


58o  APPE.VDJX   VII. 

reason  of  that  disturbance,  he  suspected,  and  that  not  withoi 
cause,  that  hostile  attempts  were  intended  by  their  compan; 
whereupon  he  sent  a  letter  to  New  Haven  to  infonn  the  magii 
trates  there  concerning  matters  at  Guilford,  that  many  wei 
affrighted,  and  he  desired  that  the  magistrates  of  New  Have 
would  presently  come  to  their  succor  and  as  many  troopers  z 
could  be  got,  alleging  for  a  reason  his  apprehension  of  their  dei 
perate  resolutions.  The  governor's  messengers  also  excited  t 
haste,  as  apprehending  danger  and  reporting  to  them  that  Brat 
ford  went  up  in  arms  hastening  to  their  relief  at  Guilford,  whic 
the  governor  required  with  speed.  Hereupon  New  Haven  wa 
also  alarmed  that  night  by  beating  the  drum,  etc.,  to  warn  th 
town  militia  to  be  ready,  etc.  This  fear  was  not  causeless,  fc 
what  else  could  be  gathered  from  the  preparations  of  pistol 
bullets,  swords,  etc.,  which  they  brought  with  them,  and  by  th 
threatening  speeches  given  out  by  some  of  them,  as  is  alteste 
by  the  depositions  of  some  and  subscriptions  of  others,  which  w 
have  by  us  to  show  when  need  require  ;  and  your  two  magi; 
trates  themselves,  who  ought  to  have  kept  the  king's  peac 
among  their  own  party  and  in  their  own  speeches,  threatened  ol 
governor  that  if  any  thing  was  done  against  those  men,  i.  e.,  Roi 
seler  and  his  party,  Connecticut  would  lake  it  as  done  againi 
themselves,  for  they  were  bound  to  protect  them  ;  and  they  ro? 
high  in  threatenings,  yet  they  joined  therewnth  their  desii 
of  another  conference  with  New  Haven,  pretending  their  pui 
[xjse  of  granting  to  us  what  we  would  desire,  so  far  as  the 
could,  if  we  would  unite  with  them;  but  still  they  held  oi 
members  frotn  us  and  upheld  them  in  their  animosities  again: 
us.  Is  this  the  way  to  union?  and  what  can  you  grant  \ 
which  we  have  not  in  our  own  right  within  ourselves  withoi 
you?  Yea,  it  is  the  birthright  of  our  posterity  which  we  nia 
not  barter  away  from  them  by  treaties  with  you.  It  is  oi 
purchased  inheritance,  which  no  wise  man  would  part  with  upo 
a  treaty  to  receive  in  lieu  thereof  a  lease  of  the  same,  upo 


APPENDIX  VI L  581 

your  terms  who  have  no  right  thereunto.  And  why  is  our  union 
with  you  by  our  coming  under  your  patent  urged  now  as  neces- 
sary for  peace  ?  seeing  we  have  enjoyed  peace  mutually  while 
we  have  been  distinct  colonies  for  about  twenty  years  past. 
And  why  do  you  separate  the  things  which  God  hath  joined 
together,  viz.  righteousness  and  peace,  seeing  you  persist  in 
your  unrighteous  dealing  with  us,  and  persuade  us  to  peace. 
It  is  true  we  all  came  to  New  England  with  the  same  ends,  and 
that  we  all  agree  in  some  main  things,  but  it  doth  not  follow 
from  thence  we  ought  therefore  to  unite  with  you  in  the  same 
jurisdiction,  for  the  same  may  be  said  of  all  the  united  colonies, 
which  nevertheless  are  distinct  colonies. 

20.  That  upon  a  more  diligent  search  of  your  patent,  we  find 
that  New  Haven  colony  is  not  included  within  the  line  of  your 
patent,  for  we  suppose  that  your  bounds,  according  to  the 
expression  of  your  patent  may  be  in  a  just  grammatical  con- 
struction so  cleared,  as  that  this  colony,  in  every  part  of  it  may 
be  mathematically  demonstrated  to  be  exempted  from  it. 

21.  That  the  premises  being  duly  weighed,  it  will  be  your 
wisdom  and  way  to  desist  wholly,  and  forever  from  endeavoring 
to  draw  us  into  a  union  under  your  patent  by  any  treaty  for 
the  future,  and  to  apply  yourselves  to  your  duty  towards  God, 
the  king,  and  us.  ist,  Towards  God,  that  you  fear  him,  and 
therefore  repent  of  your  unrighteous  dealing  with  us,  and  re- 
foim  what  you  have  done  amiss,  by  restoring  our  members 
without  delay  unto  us  again,  that  you  may  escape  the  wrath 
of  God  which  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  unrighteous- 
ness and  against  all  that  dishonor  his  holy  name,  especially 
among  the  heathen,  which  you  have  done  thereby.  2.  Toward 
the  king,  that  you  honor  him  by  looking  at  us  as  a  distinct  col- 
ony within  ourselves,  as  you  see  by  the  premises  his  majesty 
doth,  and  by  restorin[g]  us  to  our  former  entire  state,  and  our 
members  to  us  in  obedience  to  his  majesty  who  hath  com- 
manded us,  as  a  distinct  colony^  to  serve  him  in  weighty  aflairs, 


582  APPENDIX  VI l. 

and  wherein  if  you  hinder  us,  (as  you  will  if  you  still  withhold 
our  members  firom  us,  as  much  as  in  you  lyeth,)  you  will  incur 
his  majesty's  just  and  high  displeasure,  who  hath  not  given  you 
in  your  patent  the  least  appearance  of  a  just  ground  for  your 
laying  any  claim  to  us.  3.  Towards  us,  your  neighbors,  your 
brethren,  your  confederates,  by  virtue  whereof  it  is  your  duty 
to  preserve  unto  us  our  colony  state,  power,  and  privileges, 
against  all  others  that  would  oppose  us  therein  or  encroach 
upon  us.  Is  Rosseter  of  such  value  with  you  that  what  this 
jurisdiction  doth  against  them  your  colony  will  take  it  as  done 
to  themselves?  But  if  it  be  said,  as  one  of  your  committee  is 
reported  to  express  it,  that  you  must  perform  your  promise  to 
them,  as  Joshua  and  elders  of  Israel  did  to  the  Gibeonites, 
do  you  not  see  the  sundry  disparities  between  that  vow  and 
yours?  or  do  you  indeed  make  conscience  of  your  vow  to 
Gibeonites,  if  you  term  them  so,  and  without  regard  to  your 
consciences  break  your  promise  and  most  solemn  confedera- 
tion to  Israelites  ?  Doubtless  it  will  not  be  safe  for  this  colony 
to  join  in  one  government  with  p)ersons  of  such  principles  and 
practices  ;  no  treaty  will  be  able  to  bring  us  to  it.  We  believe 
that  our  righteous  God,  to  whom  we  have  solemnly  and  pub- 
licly commended  and  committed  our  righteous  cause,  will  pro- 
tect us  against  all  that  shall  any  way  wrong  and  oppress  us  ; 
neither  will  we  at  all  doubt  the  justice  of  his  majesty,  our  king 
as  well  as  yours,  and  of  his  most  honorable  council,  but  that 
upon  hearing  the  business  opened  before  them  they  will  effectu- 
ally relieve  us  against  your  unjust  encroachments,  as  the  matter 
shall  require.  We  desire  peace  and  love  between  us,  and  that 
we  may  for  the  future  live  in  love  and  peace  together  as  dis- 
tinct neighbor  colonies,  as  we  did  above  twenty  years  together 
before  you  received  and  misunderstood  and  so  abused  your 
patent,  and  in  hope  that  our  uncomfortable  and  afflictive  exer- 
cises, by  your  encroachments  upon  our  rights  would  issue 
therein,  we  have  so  long  borne  what  we  have  suffered  for  i>eace* 


APPENDIX   VI L  583 

sake ;  now  it  is  high  time  that  we  bring  these  unbrotherly  con- 
tests, wherewith  you  have  troubled  us,  to  a  peaceable  issue.  In 
order  thereunto,  we  do  offer  you  this  choice,  eithei  to  return 
our  members  unto  us  voluntarily,  which  will  be  your  honor  and 
a  confirmation  of  our  mutual  love,  or  to  remove  them  to  some 
other  plantation  within  your  own  bounds,  and  free  us  wholly 
from  them ;  for  we  may  not  bear  it  that  such  foedifragous,  disor- 
derly persons  shall  continue  within  the  towns  belonging  to  this 
colony,  to  disturb  our  peace,  despise  our  government,  and  dis- 
quiet our  members,  and  disable  us  to  obey  the  king's  com- 
mands. But  if  they  stay  where  they  now  are,  we  shall  take  our 
time  to  proceed  according  to  justice ;  especially  with  Brown,  for 
his  contempt  of  the  declaration,  and  therein  of  the  king's  com- 
mands and  of  the  authority  of  this  jurisdiction,  and  with  Bray 
Rosseter  and  his  son  for  all  their  seditious  practices. 

Lastly  for  prevention  of  any  misapprehension,  we  crave  leave 
to  explain  our  meaning  in  any  passages  in  this  writing,  which 
may  seem  to  reflect  censure  of  unrighteous  dealing  with  us, 
upon  your  colony  or  general  assembly,  that  we  mean  only  such 
as  have  been  active  instruments  therein. 

From  the  committee,  by  order  of  the  General  Court  of  New 
Haven  Colony, 

James  Bishop,  Secretary^ 

New  Havsn,  March  9,  i6{}. 


[/«  these  papers  is  a  copy  of  the  answer  of  the  New  Haven  Case 
Stated^  and  New  Haven  Plea,  March,  166}. 

Honored  Gentlemen  and  Neighbors,  —  We  have,  according 
to  our  promise  in  our  last  to  you  (sent  by  your  messengers) , 
considered  what  you  sent  to  us,  and,  by  way  of  answer,  we  re- 
turn as  foUoweth. 

You  are  pleased  to  term  our  claims  and  our  claiming  our  in- 
terest, an  unjust  pretence  and  encroachment  upon  your  just  and 


584  APPENDIX   VIL 

proper  rights.  To  untie  this  knot  and  pretence  of  yours,  in  all 
the  particulars  of  it,  states  the  whole  case  you  have  presented 
in  your  large  schedule  and  multiloquous  pennings ;  therefore  as 
methodically  as  we  can,  and  curt,  as  the  little  time  we  have 
allowed  and  our  other  weighty  concernments  will  permit,  in  few 
words  we  have  addressed  ourselves  for  resolution  and  your  con- 
viction. 

It  is  not  a  pretence,  but  a  reality  that  we  do  and  have  acted 
upon ;  we  are  a  delegated  power  and  act  under  a  superior  head, 
yours  and  ours,  if  we  both  know  our  standing,  upon  whose  in- 
terest we  do  and  must  act ;  and  our  acting  so  shows  our  loyalty 
to  our  sovereign  and  is  no  way  dissonant  to  a  religious  rule,  and 
therefore  our  consciences  not  to  be  charged  with  deHnquency 
therein  ;  (we  forbear  to  gird,  though  we  have  your  copy  for  it 
before  us)  ;  and  if  with  a  single,  not  self-willed  eye,  you  be 
pleased  to  peruse  and  weigh  what  we  have  already  promised, 
the  next  particular  in  order  is  resolved ;  we  will  set  to  it  a  seal, 
a  broad  seal,  which  we  doubt  not  will  confirm  the  justice  of  all 
our  actings  towards  yourselves,  if  our  great  forbearance  prove 
not  prejudicial  to  us,  we  being  trustees  in  charge ;  and  then  if 
what  we  claim  be  just  and  really  just,  what  you  assume  to  your- 
selves belongs  to  us ;  what  you  have  aspersed  us  withal,  apply 
it  to  yourselves;  if  you  can  disprove  what  we  have  rightly 
affirmed,  then  you  must  countermand  our  allegation  with  as 
eminent  a  delegation  and  sealed  with  as  broad  a  se!iil  also,  yet 
then  it  would  not  be  so  eminently  evident,  but  doubtful  and 
admit  a  trial,  because  the  plea  of  priority  would  be  ours  and 
not  yours,  and  you  well  know  that  is  a  good  plea  in  the  law. 

As  for  your  consultations  with  friends  in  England,  intentions 
and  ends  propounded  to  yourselves,  we  see  no  more  argument 
of  force  in  such  precedaneous  discourses  than  in  a  dream  of  rich 
revenues  to  an  awaking  poor  man ;  of  the  ^same  nature  it  is  to 
be  one  joining  in  the  purchase  of  the  Massachusetts  patent  and 
a  patentee,  because  the  privileges  thereof  extend  not  beyond 


APPENDIX   VII,  585 

the  limits  of  the  same,  for  our  purchasing  of  one  piece  of  land 
gives  us  no  right  to  our  neighbor's  field ;  and  it  is  a  difficult 
undertaking  to  maintain  your  Indian  purchase  from  the  right 
owner  thereof,  or  to  plead  a  better  right  than  Connecticut  who 
had  the  right  of  conquest,  and  as  added  to  conquest  a  deed  of 
gift  from  the  great  sachem  Sowheag,  and  under  both  those 
rights  possessing ;  and  by  the  court  of  Connecticut  allowing  you 
a  plantation  right  in  that  place,  and  then  calling  whom  their 
agent  that  possessed  the  same,  we  may  well  question  the  founda- 
tion of  your  government,  unless  you  can  find  and  show  a  Con- 
necticut court  record  allowing  the  same. 

And  as  for  Stamford's  being  joined  to  New  Haven  govern- 
ment by  consent  of  Connecticut,  there  is  no  record  extant  that 
we  can  find ;  but  provided  it  be  true  as  you  say,  they  are  but 
words  of  course,  as  the  case  now  stands,  because  the  conclu- 
sion follows  not  upon  the  premises,  but  rather  all  your  many 
instances  are  but  so  many  flourishes  as  blinding  mists,  to  darken 
the  truth  as  now  it  is. 

Your  high  prizing  of  Mr.  Eaton,  that  worthy  man  deceased, 
who  we  own  was  wise,  grave  and  godly,  and  we  could  also  say 
that  we  have  had  governors  not  much  inferior,  who  now  with 
him  lie  in  the  dust,  but  such  applauses  little  promote  our  state 
concernments  in  this  present  contest ;  wherefore  we  shall  pass 
them  over  as  not  so  pertinent. 

But  you  say  from  the  first  you  maintained  your  Quilipiage 
against  the  claim  of  the  Dutch,  by  hewing  out  the  King's  Arms 
in  wood,  and  advancing  them  (marble  and  brass  are  the  more 
lasting)";  but  we  of  Connecticut  maintain  our  rights  and  claim 
now,  by  the  king's  arms  in  wax,  which  is  a  confirming  seal  to 
his  royal  pleasure  in  express  words  and  directions  for  our  settle- 
ment for  ever  hereafter. 

You  say  all  New  England  consented  that  New  Haven  should 
be  and  were  a  distinct  government,  except  Rhode  Island.  It  is 
likely  that  is  a  mistake,  for  Piscataway  was  then  a  government, 


586  APPENDIX  VIL 

and  Agamenticus,  and  several  other  planted  places  more  east- 
ward, whose  consent  and  approbation  was  never  sought  for  as 
we  suppose,  but  if  it  were  as  is  said,  there  is  no  danger  to  peki 
to  it  or  argument  in  it  to  advantage. 

The  main  argument  as  follows  is  the  combination  and  solemn 
confederation,  unto  which  we  answer. 

1.  The  combination  did  not  constitute  a  government  with 
power  and  privileges,  only  amicable  compliance  and  mutual 
helpfulness  in  common  concernments,  as  bordering  firiends  and 
neighbors  in  a  distracted  wilderness. 

2.  The  casual  inducement  of  the  combination  was  a  former 
exigence  felt  (as  in  the  Pequot  War)  and  for  future  feared,  as 
vis  unita  fortior,  to  deter  a  common  enemy  Sxom.  future  attempts 
in  Hke  kind,  and  to  promote  mutual  welfare. 

3.  As  a  vow  is  disannulled  by  the  contradiction  of  a  suj>erior, 
so  where  the  word  of  a  king  is  there  is  power ;  and  we  having 
the  word  of  a  king,  with  a  religious  loyalty  we  are  to  observe  it 
when  we  may  do  so,  without  sin  in  doing  so. 

4.  It  is  our  duty  (when  without  sin  we  may  so  do  it)  to  obey 
our  king  in  his  lawful  commands,  when  every  year  we  take  our 
solemn  oaths  exactly  to  attend  all  his  and  our  lawful  appoint- 
ments. 

These  particular  arguments  also  answer  the  common  title  of 
the  four  united  colonies,  for  by  the  combination  came  in  that 
union. 

And  for  a  title  of  a  Colony,  it  is  not  a  tide  of  honour  properly, 
neither  doth  it  imply  government ;  the  basis  of  oiu*  government 
is  not  that  empty  title,  but  as  subjects  of  his  royal  majesty  by 
his  abundant  grace  we  are  created  and  made  a  body  poHtic  and 
corporate  with  power  and  privileges,  and  the  extent  of  our 
corporation  ordered  to  be  all  that  part  of  his  majesty's  domin- 
ions in  New  England,  bounded  as  our  charter  expresseth,  and 
entrusting  us  with  the  care  of  all  the  plantations  therein  and  the 
government  of  all  the  people  thereof;  and  because  it  is  a  duty 


APPENDIX   VIL  587 

incumbent  on  us  to  be  faithful  to  our  trust,  we  do  declare  and 
claim  (not  with  a  flourish  of  empty  words)  as  under  our  gov- 
ernment, all  those  plantations  which  you  possess  and  have 
formerly  governed  as  peculiarly  belonging  to  our  corporation, 
requiring  your  subjection  to  our  order  and  laws  in  observance 
to  the  order  and  appointment  of  our  royal  sovereign  and  yours. 

Then  you  improve  as  another  argument  that  Mr.  Gregson 
intended  to  procure  a  patent,  and  was  employed  therein  by 
yourselves,  with  the  consent  of  Connecticut,  for  the  procuring 
of  p)ower  and  privileges,  for  both  are  implied  by  your  mention 
of  a  patent,  though  there  be  no  enforcing  argument  for  what 
you  intend  it  in  these  presents,  yet  we  must  take  notice  of  what 
may  appear  as  contradiction  and  our  advantage,  for  this  en- 
deavor succeeded  the  combination,  and  therefore  it  was  then 
the  conclusion  both  of  yourselves  and  us  (as  you  say)  that 
our  combination  was  not  sufficient,  patent  right  was  requisite, 
yet  perusing  the  preface  to  the  combination,  we  question  the 
truth  of  it,  it  being  neither  upon  record  and  that  preface  in 
plain  and  full  words  expressing  that  by  reason  of  sad  distrac- 
tions in  England  by  which  we  were  hindered  both  from  seeking 
and  reaping  the  comfortable  fruits  of  protection,  &c.,  which  is 
the  great  privilege  conferred  by  letters  patents,  and  if  then 
patent  right  was  requisite,  now  we  have  obtained  it  and  you  are 
included  within  it,  wherefore  ready  submission  would  better  be- 
come you  than  bold  insultings  and  charges.  We  pass  particu- 
lars briefly,  knowing  that  a  word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient. 

You  say  Connecticut  sought  a  patent  without  your  consent, 
when  you  had  formerly  taken  in  their  consent  to  Mr.  Gregson*s 
intention  as  before  :  we  say  as  before  we  have  said,  we  can  find 
no  record  witnessing  the  same ;  but  to  take  off  your  causeless 
offence  herein,  we  doubt  not  but  you  well  know  that  we  paid 
hundreds  of  pounds  to  Mr.  Fenwick  and  his  agents  for  patent 
rights  several  years  together,  and  we  will  now  inform  you  we 
had  a  full  promise  and  engagement  for  the  sending  and  deliver- 


5  88  APPENDIX   VI L 

ing  into  our  possession  that  patent  which  we  had  paid  so  dear 
for,  the  date  of  the  grant  of  which  patent  did  precede  the  com- 
bination, or  your  knowledge  of  a  place  called  Quilipiage  in  New 
England,  and  this  patent  which  now  we  have  is  but  that  which 
fonnerly  we  should  have  had,  with  some  small  addition  and  in- 
considerable alteration,  and  neither  that  addition  or  alteration 
reflecting  upon  yourselves  in  any  measure.  Our  owning  of  you 
in  a  tacit  way  we  doubt  not  but  will  be  judged  a  favour  in  the 
true  sense,  rf  such  as  have  eyes  to  see  and  hearts  to  under- 
stand. 

As  for  your  letter  from  the  Lords  of  the  Council,  persons 
whom  we  highly  honour  as  yourselves  do,  yet  we  suppose  it  was 
sent  in  the  time  of  the  great  distractions  in  England,  when  the 
king  was  separate  from  his  parliament,  but  now  we  have  re- 
ceived letters  patent  confirmed  by  broad  seal  and  writ  of  privy 
seal,  king,  council,  and  parliament  all  consenting,  and  not  only 
owning  of,  but  establishing  us  with  corporation  power  and 
privileges,  upon  which  we  may  act  more  boldly  than  on  a  pre- 
sumption only,  and  are  bound  to  act  so,  and  that  under  oath 
and  by  royal  appointment. 

Your  affirming  Connecticut  had  no  patent  but  within  these 
two  years  last  past  we  have  fully  answered  it  before ;  a  patent 
formally  confirmed  and  possessed  we  had  not  till  of  late, 
though  we  had  payed  a  considerable  sum,  and  had  the  same 
firmly  engaged.  Had  we  had  it  before,  we  should  have  acted 
upon  it  as  now  we  do,  and  probably  more  vigorously. 

Greenwich  settled  by  the  commissioners  was  in  the  time  of 
ignorance  which  doth  not  alienate  a  true  proper  right  forever. 

As  for  that  friend's  warning  letters  to  our  honored  governor, 
&c.,  we  know  not  what  they  were,  but  it  is  attested  that  your 
then  governor  desired  our  honored  governor  to  include  New 
Haven  within  our  charter,  and  by  a  letter  and  improving  his 
interest  in  some  friends  he  further  endeavored  the  same. 

You  affirm,  if  New  Haven  were  within  the  patent  they  should 


APPENDIX    VII.  589 

have  been  warned  to  the  first  general  assembly,  for  we  could 
not  constitute  a  general  assembly  without  them ;  this  is  hardly 
worth  an  answer,  but  to  prevent  a  cavil,  the  power  and  privilege 
was  not  conferred  on  New  Haven  but  on  Connecticut,  and  this 
evidently  appears,  because  the  favour  extended  is  unto  those 
that  formerly  had  purchased,  conquered,  and  now  petitioned ; 
and  we  should  have  acted  imprudently,  disorderly  and  justly 
offensive  to  our  associates  so  to  have  done,  before  we  had  dis- 
covered his  majesty's  favour  towards  them  in  his  gracious  grant, 
and  preferring  others  less  obliged. 

The  next  particular  presented  is  the  rent  and  disturbance 
thereby  to  your  government  and  orderly  constitution  (as  you 
say)  by  our  admission  of  some  of  your  members  under  our  pro- 
tection. Those  of  your  members  (as  you  term  them)  clearly 
perceiving  themselves  included,  and  advisedly  considering  their 
duty  for  willing  and  ready  observance  of  his  majesty's  pleasure 
and  appointment,  and  for  obedience  unto  our  corporation  power 
as  ready  subjects  to  both,  owning  us  as  we  are  truly  delegated, 
we  could  not  without  some  danger  but  accept  of  them,  con- 
firming security  and  protection,  and  do  conclude  the  like  ready 
obedience  from  yourselves  would  have  been  more  regular  and 
comfortable  to  yourselves  at  last ;  the  event  will  discover. 

Now  to  give  you  a  short  answer  to  our  honored  governor's 
letter  to  Major  Mason,  which  as  yet  never  came  to  our  honored 
Major  or  our  hands  ;  if  it  be  with  you,  you  had  done  well  if  you 
had  sent  it  us. 

2.  As  for  his  engagement,  it  was  after  we  had  received  your 
members  (as  you  term  them),  it  evidently  appears,  the  com- 
plaint being  upon  that  account. 

3.  We  had  then  received  our  letters  patent,  and  acted  ac- 
cording to  our  instructions  and  directions  in  them  from  his 
majesty  ;  our  true  loyalty  to  his  gracious  appointments  and  our 
proceedings  therein  his  majesty  hath  determined  and  warranted 
pleadable  in  law  against  himself  and  his  successors,  and  so  we 
stand  free. 


S90  APPENDIX   VII. 

But  in  respect  of  the  honor  of  our  worshipful  governor,  as 
we  are  able  we  shall  answer. 

1.  Our  governor  knew  the  extent  of  the  patent,  the  desire  of 
your  then  governor,  as  by  letter  and  persuasion  of  friends  ap- 
pears, and  therefore  in  the  order  of  the  patent  acted  innocently 
and  blamelessly,  espressing  his  great  courtesy  and  tender  re- 
spect towards  you,  and  this  bluster  of  yours  is  a  very  ungrateful 
return  for  all  his  love,  favour  and  tenderness. 

2.  Yourselves  could  not  but  be  well  acquainted  with  what  we 
expressed,  before  you  sent  into  England  unto  our  honored  gov- 
ernor by  way  of  complaint,  for  you  had  received  a  copy  of  the 
patent  by  our  first  committee  sent  firom  Connecticut  unto  you. 

3.  You  know  that  the  absolute  power  was  now  in  the  hands 
of  the  corporation  of  Connecticut  to  do  according  to  the  tenor 
thereof,  and  not  in  our  governors  power  to  alter  the  same. 

4.  Our  honored  governor  receiving  your  complaint  (and 
from  a  tender  affection  and  favour  towards  yoiuselves)  endeav- 
ored to  do  his  utmost  to  promote  your  desires ;  and  what  a 
reward  he  hath  for  his  labour  of  love  from  you,  the  world  may 
judge. 

5.  Lastly,  this  cannot  advantage  your  cause  nor  be  an  evi- 
dence in  your  plea,  for  he  passeth  no  engaging  promise  to  you 
therein,  but  as  a  friend  persuading  those  whom  it  altogether 
concerns  to  do  what  possibly  and  fairly  may  be  done,  with  the 
highest  engaging  expressions  adventuring  as  far  as  may  be  to 
do  you  a  kindness,  which  you  should  have  accepted  if  you  had 
known  yourselves. 

For  the  commissioners*  last  act  in  relation  to  those  our  con- 
cernments, their  caution  introduced  in  relation  to  the  Dutch, 
is  a  wary  answer,  saving  our  allegiance  to  his  majesty  and 
interest  by  patent,  which  you  may  accept  of  as  our  present 
answer  to  your  allegation,  for  there  is  a  stronger  argument  in 
it  than  yours  alleged. 

And  for  your  mathematical  measures  and  discovery,  it  might 


APPENDIX   VI L  59 1 

do  us  some  service  in  the  line  betwixt  us  and  the  Massachu- 
setts, if  you  have  an  able  artist,  when  he  is  desired  by  them 
and  us  to  attend  that  service ;  but  our  charter  is  the  true  astro- 
lobe  for  our  south  bounds. 

Gentlemen,  these  shadows  being  flush  and  fled,  in  the  next 
place  we  shall  make  some  short  return  to  your  sharp  reproofs, 
and  answer  your  arguments  briefly. 

Our  return  to  the  narrative  gives  you  a  full  answer  to  all  your 
arguments,  yet  to  silence  cavils  full  of  empty  adored  conceits, 
to  each  argument  we  shall  take  the  pains  to  give  a  short  answer, 
only  premising  to  prevent  tautology. 

1.  Yourselves  have  proclaimed  our  king,  owned  him  your 
sovereign  and  yourselves  his  subjects,  and  the  places  you  possess 
part  of  his  majesty's  dominions  abroad,  and  in  your  present 
writing  declaring  that  you  intend  (if  not  already  attempted) 
to  improve  means  for  obtaining  a  patent. 

2.  You  well  know  a  king  in  his  own  dominions  is  by  all  men 
termed  pater  patria,  and  in  Scripture  record  he  is  said  to  be  a 
nursing  father,  and  then  all  his  subjects  or  his  children  bound 
to  obey.     (Eccles.  viii.  2  ;  i  Pet.  ii.  13,  14.) 

I.  Argument :  That  Connecticut  in  entertaining  some  inhabit- 
ants of  Stamford,  Guilford,  and  Southhold,  they  did  it  by  a 
pretended  power  against  the  just  right  of  New  Haven  Colony 
and  without  their  knowledge  or  consent. 

This  assumption  is  false,  both  in  the  pretended  power  men- 
tioned, and  the  just  right  as  you  apply  it.  For,  i.  Our  power  is 
real,  not  pretended ;  it  is  formally  legal,  as  by  our  letters  patent 
doth  undeniably  appear,  being  ratified  by  broad  seal.  2.  For 
your  just  right,  that  appears  to  be  your  pretence  and  presump- 
tion only,  and  it  cannot  be  maintained  unless  you  can  show  a 
deed  of  gift  sealed  as  ours  and  precedent  also.  And  3dly, 
Whereas  you  say  what  we  did  was  without  your  knowledge  and 
consent,  we  answer:  i.  Your  consent  was  not  absolutely  requi- 
site, the  places  possessed  by  them  being  within  our  charter 


592  APPEXDIX   VII. 

limits  and  the  government  of  the  people  committed  to  our  care, 
and  they  claiming  it  as  their  privilege,  and  ourselves  clearly 
perceiving  it  to  be  so,  could  not  deny  them  without  unfaithful- 
ness in  our  trust. 

Hence  your  prolix  discourses  (by  way  of  explication  of  this 
argument)  respecting  the  5th  and  8th  commandment,  reflect 
upon  yourselves  as  the  transgressors,  withstanding  your  ready 
obedience  to  the  order  and  appointment  of  your  nursing  father, 
and  attempting  to  intrude,  and  actually  disturbing  of  us  in  our 
just  rights.  As  for  your  purchase  of  the  Indians,  it  is  very 
questionable  whether  you  purchased  of  the  right  owners ;  but  if 
you  did,  as  yourselves  say,  yet  you  purchased  but  land  of  them 
and  not  jurisdiction  power,  about  which  is  our  only  contest. 

2.  Argument :  Connecticut  have  assumed  to  themselves 
power  of  jurisdiction  over  part  of  our  members  without  just 
right  thereunto. 

This  assumption  is  altogether  false,  for,  i.  We  assumed  not 
this  power  to  ourselves ;  our  letters  patent  are  our  witness, 
which  declare  that  his  royal  majesty,  of  his  abundant  grace, 
certain  knowledge  and  mere  motion,  hath  created  and  made  us 
a  body  politic  and  corporate,  to  exercise  our  government  over 
all,  yourselves  not  excepted,  which  is  sufficient  to  discover  our 
just  right  beyond  exception,  and  to  cavil  against  it  is  only  to 
bid  battle  to  a  shadow. 

As  for  your  mathematical  demonstration,  we  judge  it  not 
worthy  to  be  weighed  in  the  balance  of  reason,  it  is  so  unrea- 
sonable. I.  If  we  exceed  our  line  and  limits  it  is  a  trespass 
against  the  king :  when  his  attorney  general  appears,  then  we 
will  plead  our  patent,  for  his  royal  majesty  of  his  abundant 
grace  hath  made  it  pleadable  against  himself  and  for  the  best 
behoof  of  the  governor  and  company.  2.  If  you  had  a  patent 
and  there  were  to  be  a  line  settled  for  peace  between  us,  we 
should  readily  attend  you  therein,  but  we  cannot  understand 
that  his  majesty  hath  yet  given  you  distinct  from  us  a  mathe- 
matical line. 


APPENDIX   VIL  593 

3.  Argument :  Connecticut  have  acted  contrary  to  promise 
and  confederation. 

Ans.  —  In  nonage  the  contradiction  of  a  superior  makes 
void :  a  father  disannuls  the  child's  act,  that  is  powerless ;  for 
the  dispose  or  gift  of  government  is  only  the  Tgift  of  the 
nursing  father  within  his  own  territories  and  dominions;  if 
otherwise,  it  was  blamable  folly  to  be  at  such  large  expense  to 
procure  a  patent,  when  the  commissioners  might  have  granted 
it  for  an  inconsiderable  sum,  and  it  will  be  the  like  folly  in  your- 
selves, especially  being  minded  and  forewarned  of  it ;  the  true 
question  here  is  whether  his  majesty's  appointment  or  the 
commissioners*  is  of  most  force  and  valid. 
.  4.  Argument :  Connecticut  have  done  contrary  to  the  general 
rule  of  love  and  righteousness. 

Ans.  —  I.  In  every  argument  we  find  the  question  begged. 
2.  Hence  the  assumption  is  false.  But  3dly,  to  apologize  for 
our  love  and  righteousness  :  i.  For  love  :  by  your  then  chief  in 
government  our  governor  was  solicited  to  include  New  Haven 
within  our  patent,  both  by  speech  and  letter,  and  friends  in 
England  were  improved  by  some  of  you  to  persuade  to  and 
promote  the  same,  and  according  to  your  desires  attended  the 
best  expedient  to  express  sincerity  of  love,  your  case  and 
condition  at  that  time  duly  considered ;  and  since  by  our  many 
loving  insinuations,  solicitings,  and  loving  treaties,  both  for 
your  own  good  and  ours,  and  large  offers  of  immunities  and 
liberties  as  great  as  our  own,  and  as  far  as  we  could  possibly 
extend  our  charter ;  what  could  we  have  done  more.  2.  For 
righteousness :  the  extremity  of  justice  we  have  not  used,  but 
the  moderation  of  justice ;  we  might  have  immediately  declared 
you  under  our  government,  required  your  subjection,  upon 
refusal  severely  censured,  and  have  justified  what  we  had  done  ; 
yet  we  have  used  much  patience,  forbearance,  waiting,  and 
expense  of  much  time  and  charges,  if  possibly  we  might  have 
gained  you  without  much  extremity,  and  we  doubt  not  but 


594  APPENDIX  VII. 

understanding  judges  will  interpret  it  an  extreme  condescend- 
ency  and  chargeable  labor  of  love ;  besides  for  righteousness, 
you  were  included  in  our  former  patent  grant,  which  was  before 
your  being  or  your  plantation,  and  at  chargeable  purchase  to 
ourselves,  and  this  our  patent  expresses  it  a  valuable  considera- 
tion of  our  present  confirmation.  And  now  having  so  fully 
expressed  ourselves  and  informed  yourselves,  we  can  appeal  to 
all  the  Christian  world  for  judges. 

5.  Argument :  If  the  general  assembly  upon  the  receipt  of 
your  patent  agreed  to  treat  with  New  Haven  about  union,  and 
in  the  interim  accept  of  some  of  your  members  without  your 
consent,  they  dealt  unrighteously,  but  so  Connecticut  did. 

Ans.  —  This  argument  looks  like  a  chaos,  there  is  so  much 
jumble  in  it ;  it  is  hypothetical  with  a  sequel  in  the  first  propo- 
sition, which  is  to  be  denied  as  a  non  sequitur^  for  both  may 
be  without  any  unrighteousness,  for  it  is  the  king  that  hath 
united  you  and  us ;  to  have  refused  the  ready  submission  of 
any,  had  become  unrighteousness  towards  the  persons  tender- 
ing that  obedience,  and  a  negligent  retarding  of  the  king's 
appointment ;  the  vote  for  a  treaty  for  union  only  respected  the 
modus,  for  a  more  placid  entertainment  of  what  in  duty  and 
loyalty  was  to  be  attended.  If  authority  entertains  one  that 
voluntarily  offers  himself,  persuades  another,  commands  a  third, 
he  sins  in  neither,  nor  though  he  had  determined  to  treat  with 
them  together  before  that ;  and  truly  the  greatest  danger  of 
dismembering,  and  loosing  an  ear,  is  in  refiising  submission  to 

m 

his  majesty's  lawful  appointment. 

Argument  6th :  Connecticut  pleads  a  power  over  New  Ha- 
ven by  virtue  of  a  patent,  and  it  gives  them  no  such  power, 
whereby  they  abuse  that  patent  and  deal  unrighteously. 

Ans.  — This  answered  before,  and  it  is  too  favorable  to  say 
it  is  like  two  sentences  in  one  sense,  rather  six  sentences  and 
no  sense ;  like  men  spoken  of  in  the  prophet,  that  have  eyes 
and  see  not,  hearts  and  understand  not. 


APPENDIX   VIL  595 

To  the  remaining  arguments  we  say,  and  sufficient  is  said  to 
maintain  it :  i.  That  our  entertainment  of  those  members  was 
righteous,  our  promise  of  protection  lawful ;  therefore  that  we 
may  avoid  unrighteousness,  and  it  perform  we  must.  2.  Their 
submission  was  righteous  and  commendable :  we  dare  not  call 
good  evil.  3.  Then  if  Joshua  took  himself  boimd  to  keep 
promise  with  the  Gibeonites  who  acted  wilily,  and  were  of  that 
people  which  were  appointed  to  destruction,  much  more  must 
we,  when  people  of  our  own  language,  nation,  profession,  and 
friends,  are  appointed  and  ordered  under  our  care  and  protec- 
tion, keep  our  promise  with  them,  allowing  them  an  interest 
in  all  our  privileges  which  are  common  to  them  as  well  as 
ourselves.] 


i  ! 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abbot,  George,  Archbishop  of  Canterburyi 

19,  ao,  a6,  35,  4».  «6o. 
Abbot,  Sir  Maurice,  35. 
Ahaddon,  alias  Joshua,  333. 
Akerly,  Robert,  173. 
AUerton,  Itmzc,  135,  «h,  435,  543,  546. 
Allerton,  Isaac,  Mrs.,  435,  544,  548,  55a. 
Allerton,  Isaac,  jun.,  370. 
Ailing,  John,  547,  550. 
Alling's.  John,  wife,  55a. 
Ailing,  Roger,  109,  133,  990,  a9i,  543,  545, 

550.  556. 
Ailing,  Sister,  544,  548,  553. 
Allyn,  John,  477.  478,  485,  486,  491,  500, 

5<M.  503.  506,  507.  5«3.  5«4.  5«5i  5«8,  521, 

5".  5*3.  5*4. 
Allyn,  Matthew,  465,  467,  477,  478. 
Alsop,  Joseph,  419,  546,  55a 
Alaop,  Goodwife,  548,  553, 
Andrews,  Nathan,  14a. 
Andrews,  Samuel,  381. 
Andrews,  William,  100,  loa,  iii,  147,  ai8, 

»97.  446,  54a.  545.  550- 

Andrews,  Goodwife,  549,  554. 

Anuuitaway,  91,  318. 

Arhclla,  Eaton  owned  one-sixteenth  of,  51. 

Armor,  defensive,  398. 

Arms,  persons  subject  to  military  duty  must 
furnish  themselves  with,  a94,  a97.  In- 
spection of,  295,  396,  a97,  303. 

Arrival  at  Quinnipiac  of  its  first  planters. 

Artillery  Q>mpany,  396,  304. 
Ashfind  in  Kent,  4a,  43. 


Astwood,  John,  156, 157,  389. 

Athletic  games,  306. 

Atkinson,  Luke,  no,  148,  543. 

Atkinson,  Goodwife,  549. 

Atwater,  David,  43,  47,  in,  144,  ai3,  390, 

543.  546,  550. 
Atwater's,  David,  wife,  544,  547,  55a. 
Atwater,  Joshua,  43,  47,  63,  in,  141,  ao8, 

aii,aao,  265,  54a. 
Atwater,  Sister,  544. 
Atwater,  Thomas,  47. 
Augur,  Nicholas,  ia8,  190,  ao4,  390,  311, 

3M,  367.  369.  546,  550. 
Austin,  Francis,  167. 
Average  time  of  voyages  from  London  to 

Boston  in  the  seventeenth  century,  54. 
Axtell,  Nathanael,  109, 136. 
Aylmer,  John,  53,  54. 


B. 


Bacon,  Francis,  10. 

Bacon,  Leonard,  60,  101,  9o6,  ao8,  aia,  939, 

428,  435. 
Bailey,  Samuel,  109,  135. 
Baker,  Thomas,  159. 
Baldwin,  John,  155. 
Baldwin,  Joseph,  155. 
Baldwin,  Nathanael,  155. 
Baldwin,  Richard,  155. 
Baldwin,  llmothy,  137,  155. 
Baldwin,  Widow,  no,  137,  155,  939. 
Ball,  Allen,  14a,  150,  546,  5J0. 
Ball,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 
Bannister,  Edward,  97,  no,  148,  $49. 
Bannister,  Goody,  544. 

597 


ixi,  X4fiy.  aif,  jrz, 

'<  544,  5I9»  £3- 
>S3- 


54a. 
544. 

r$4«,  55»- 


's»S4r»53i- 

BeL  AVirtam.  zzc.  i^o*  543, 

BrHini'tanu  WoQaiB,  §4,  443;  S3S> 

BoKckz,  TV»as,  Z73. 

Bcaaaa.  >  An.  109,  125,  439,  jfa,  545,  546, 

551-       _ 
Bc=2iam,  5«aEr,  544,  54^ 

Beslsaat's,  Jofcn,  wife,  549,  533. 

Eeaiaai,  J:»eph,  547,  551. 

EmVam't,  Joseph,  wife,  553. 

Beajaitm,  RkJard,  173. 

BenscB,  Edward,  166. 

Besthap,  Mr.,  j23. 

B«tts,  Thomas,  166,  167. 

Bishop,  James.  xi8,  291,  47a,  496,  500,  513, 

570,  5M,  525,  545,  550,  556,  560,  565,  585. 
Bishop,  Goodwife,  548,  55a. 
Bishop,  John  (of  Guilibrd)p  161 ,  164,  167, 

168,  500. 
Bixhop,  John,  Rev.  (of  Stamford),  34a. 
Bishop,  Stephen,  167. 
Blacklcy,  Samuel,  167,  551. 
Blaydcn,  William,  547. 
Blinman,  Richard,  275,  346. 
Booth,  John,  173. 
Ik)rcman,  William,  167. 
Botsford,  Henry,  311. 
Bowen,  John,  966,  067,  546. 


385;   « 
3*5. 

to 


yecng  o^ 


4«.4a3. 

'»  F«a«3»,  tix,  X45,  «3. 

V  Mia^  FnKis,  ajs,  »S3.  544- 

.547.55a. 

.553- 
\  KMimo,  100. 

>*^  77.  97.  109.  «33.  axS.  3", 
3*4.447.543.  546.  550- 
Bnckett,  Staa,  544, 548,  55a. 

Biook,  Lofd,  445- 

Bioola,  Janes,  S5X- 

BiovB,  CoBStafaK,  579* 

Biovii,  Fiandft,  63, 15a,  1S3.  543. 54^,  551.? 

Biovii,  Staa,  545. 54*,  55*. 

Brown,  John,  551. 

Brown's,  John,  wife,  553. 

Brown,  Peier,  xxo,  149,  54a. 

Brawn's,  Peier,  wife,  545. 

Brawn,  Ridiard,  173. 

Browning,  Hemy,  iix,  143,  54s. 

Bryan,  Akzander,  304. 

Bnckingfaam,  THoinas,  109, 136,  155,  X56. 

Bndd,  John,  109, 133,  173,  aa6. 

Bull,  Lieut.,  5x0. 

Busbeage,  330. 

Bushndl,  Francis,  x6x,  167. 

c 

Caffinch,  John,  xxx,  144,  264,  167,  168,  54a, 

546. 
Caffinch,  Mrs.,  544,  547. 
Camp,  Edward,  339,  546. 
Camp,  Goodwife,  548,  549. 
Camp,  Nicholas,  1st,  159, 433. 


INDEX. 


599 


Canary  Islands,  commerce  with,  axo. 

C^field,  Matthew,  156,  54a. 

Canficld,  Goody,  544. 

Card-playing,  381. 

Carman,  Mr.,  aio. 

Carpentery  at  New  Haren,  ai8. 

Carr,  Robert,  509. 

Carroughood,  84,  88,  328. 

Cartwright,  George,  509. 

Caryl,  Mr.,  207. 

Case,  Henry,  173. 

Cellars  as  temporary  habitations,  71. 

Chais,  Dr.,  368. 

Chalker,  Alexander,  166. 

Chambers,  Richard,  24. 

Chapin,  John,  424. 

Chapman,  John,  102,  109,  125. 

Charles,  John,  no,  149. 

Charles  the  First,  6,  15,  17,  ao,  2Z,  22,  127, 

445- 
Charles  the  Second,  386,  418,  421,  442,  571. 
Chatfield,  Francis,  161. 
Chatfield,  George,  167. 
Chatfield,  Thomas,  167. 
Chatterton,  William,  551. 
Chauncey,  Charle;,  23a. 
Cheever,  Ezekiel,  41,  100,  xoa,  109,  xao,  121, 

122, 146,  26a,  263,  532. 
Cheever,  Sister,  544. 
Chidsey,  John,  546,  550. 
Chidscy,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 
Chittenden,  William,  161,  164,  166,168  304. 
Church,  the,  is  not  established  by  the  State: 

but  itself  institutes  civil  authority,  227. 
Church  gathered  in  New  Haven,  loi. 
Churches,  were  Congregational,  228,  237. 
Church-members,  only,  shall  be  free  bur* 

gesses,  99,  157, 170. 
Church,  oflficers  of  a,  238. 
Clapboards  for  the  Canary  Islands,  aio. 
Clark,  Capt.,  225. 
Clark,  Daniel,  485,  486,  491. 
Clark,  Goodwife,  548. 
Clark,  James,  no,  151,  152,  546,  551. 
Clark's,  James,  wife,  545. 
Clark,  John,  97,  102,  no,  148,  297,  543,  551. 
Clarke,  Sister,  544,  545, 554. 
Cloth,  manufacture  of,  364. 
Coats  quilted  %»rith  cotton-wool  for  defensive 

armor,  298. 


Cockerill,  John,  141, 142. 

Codman,  Goodman,  271. 

Coe,  Robert,  173,  175, 179. 

Cogswell,  Robert,  no,  151. 

College  at  New  Haven  projected  from  the 
beginning,  271;  Mr.  Hopkins's  bequests 
in  aid  of,  275. 

Colonial  government.  Constitution  of,  185. 

Confederation  of  the  four  cokmies,  169, 176, 
179,  181. 

Conklyne,  John,  173. 

Connecticut  lays  claim  to  the  territory  of 
New  Haven,  447 ;  sends  Winthrop  to  pro- 
cure a  charter,  448:  receives  the  charter, 
462;  begins  to  treat  with  New  Haven  for 
a  comfortable  and  happy  union,  466. 

Constable,  George,  546. 

Constable,  Mrs.,  no. 

Constable,  Sir  William,  141. 

Contributions  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
elders,  242. 

Conway,  Sir  Richard,  28,  29,  30. 

Cook,  Thomas,  161,  166. 

Cooking-utensils,  357. 

Cooper,  John,  nx,  147,  198,  284,  3XX,  446, 

54a,  545.  550- 
Cooper.  Sister,  544,  549,  554. 
Cooper,  Thomas,  173. 
Corey,  John,  173. 
Corwin,  Matthias,  173. 
Cotton,  John,  34,  411,  539. 
Crampton,  Dennis,  425. 
Crane,  Jasper,  zo8,  Z09,  128,  ao8,  220,  285, 

3",  377»  4ax,  427.  43a.  433,  466,  468,  490» 

506.  5»3.  54a. 
Crane,  Sister,  544. 
Crittenden,  Isaac,  500. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  200,  202,  3x0,  377. 
Cruttenden,  Abraham,  z6i,  x66. 
Cruttenden,  Abraham,  jun.,  X67. 
Cullick,  John,  278,  555. 
Curtis,  Caleb,  173. 

D. 

Dana,  Rev.  James,  63. 
Danforth,  Thomas,  494. 
Daniel,  Stephen,  546. 
Daniel,  Mrs.,  548,  552. 
Darley,  Sir  Richard,  X38. 


6oo 


INDEX. 


Davenport,  A.  B.,  356. 

DaTcnport,  John,  a8,  99,  30,  3a,  33,  34,  35, 

36,  39.  40,  4»,  43.  44,  45.  46.  47.  5*,  53.  54, 
58,  59,  60,  63,  67.  68,  69,  70,  7a,  73,  76.  8f , 
83,  84,  85,  90,  91,  93,  95,  96,  98,  99,  100, 
109,  1x3,  123. 127,  ia8,  139,  «35.  »40,  t4>. 
148,  160,  163,  163,  171,  173,  196,  308,  «I4, 

»33,  338,  339,  340,  a4i,  »70.  »7«.  »72,  a73, 
375,  376,  377,"  380,  281,  383,  383,  384.  385, 
387,  888,  389,  390,  391,  394,  317,  318,  344, 
35a.  354,  355,  356.  365.  367,  368,  369,  370, 
37»,  37a,  374.  415,  417,  419,  423,  424,  4*5, 
4^9,  430,  433,  434.  440,  44*,  449.  468,  469, 
473,  474,  481,  483,  485,  494,  5^4,  507,  526, 
5*8,  535,  539,  540,  541,  555,  55^,  557.  560. 

DaTcnport,  Mrs.,  31,  354,  369,  544,  553. 

Davenport,  John,  jun.,  391,  546,  549,  556. 

Davenport,  Rev.  John,  of  Stamford,  314. 

Davids,  James,  146. 

Davis,  John,  435. 

Davis,  WiUiam,  136,  x S3,  »96,  a66,  54a,  545. 

Davis,  Sbter,  544,  547,  55*- 

Day,  Horace,  531. 

Day  of  extraordinary  htmiiliation,  74. 

Dayton,  Ralph,  153,  543. 

Dearmer,  Mr.,  xix,  X45. 

De  Forest,  John  W.,  318,  33r,  336. 

Delaware  Bay,  purchase  of  land  at,  193:  at- 
tempts to  settle  a  plantation  at,  X93,  X95, 
196. 

Detmison,  James,  551. 

Denton,  Richard,  175. 

Desborough,  Samuel,  166,  169. 

Dexter,  Franklin  B.,  X38. 

Dickerman,  Abraham,  55X. 

Dickcrman,  Goodwife,  553. 

Dickcrson,  Philemon,  X73. 

I>>ct.  357.  353,  359- 

Dillingham.  John,  an. 

Dimon,  Thomas,  173. 

Divbion  of  land  at  New  Haven,  103. 

Dixon,  Jeremiah,  100,  loi,  ill,  145. 

Dixwcll,  John,  146. 

Doolittic,  Abraham,  546,  550. 

DooUtile,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

l>owd,  Henry,  161,  167. 

Dudley,  William,  161,  166. 

Dunk,  Thomas,  167. 

Dunstcr,  Henry,  231,  273,  536. 

Dutch,  the,  trade  with,  191 ;  sdze  a  vessd 


in  Ncv-HavcB  bafbor,  X9»;  ask  aid  in  1 
war  with  the  liwHaiw,  306;  a  qiuuicl  \ 

309- 


Eatoo  or  Heatoo,  James,  381,  38a,  547,  < 

Eaton,  Mrs.  Richard,  X09,  xao,  250,  544. 

Eaton,  Nathanael,  127,  535. 

Eaton  (Rev.),  Samud, 37,  38,  39,  54,  90, 
99,  «oa,  «»9,  "7,  "8,  xao,  1x7,  143,  30 

Eaton,  Sanrael,  197. 

Eaton,  Theophilos,  39,  40,  46,  47,  51,  6x, 
63.  65,  67,  73, 76,  8t,  82,  84,  8s,  98,  1 
xox,  X02,  104,  X09,  XX4,  1x5,  1x9,  xao,  1 
xa7,  X3X,  13s,  136,  138,  X4«,  «43,  X54.  ^ 
x8o,  X83,  X93,  195,  X97.  308,  9\t,  ax3,  s 
378,  394,  303,  3x7,  3x8,  336,  327,  334,  -. 

348,  354,  355,  356,  360,  370,  377.  3Sa,  : 
386,  398,  4XX,  4x4,  4x5,  416,  4M,  433,  . 

555,  567,  568,  569,  570,  57^,  585- 
Eaton,  Mrs.  Tbeophilus,  1x5,  xzy,  933,  % 

aso,  356.  383. 
Eaton,  Theophilus,  jnn.,  38a. 
Edwards,  Timothy,  xso. 
Egerton  in  Kent,  4a,  43. 
Elooct,  Anthony,  3xx,  S5X. 
Eldrcd,  Mr.,  X40,  X4s. 
Eldred,  Mrs.,  xix,  X45,  379,  39X. 
Election  days,  379. 
Elective  franchise  limited  tochurcb-flaembi 

99- 
Eliot,  John,  34 s. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  3,  4,  5,  7,  as,  344, 
Elizabeth  the  washer,  xs3. 
Ellis,  Henry,  200. 

Elsey,  Nicholas,  109,  X34,  542,  545,  550. 
Elsey,  Sister,  545,  549,  552. 
Elton,  John,  X73. 
Elmigration  to  New  England  occasioned 

trouUes  in  England,  x ;  restrained  by  ro 

proclamation,  51. 
Endicott  and  his  company  emigrate,  aa. 
Endicott,  John,  293,  428,  498,  597. 
England,  contest  between  arbitrary  and  c 

sdtutional  government  in,  3:  condition 

when  the  founders  of  New  Haven  resol' 

to  emigrate,  23. 
English  people,  contest  between  the,  and 

Stuarts,  6. 


INDEX, 


6oi 


English  Puritans,  how  they  received-  James 

the  First,  7. 
Evance,  John,  40,  76, 110, 199, 140, 193, 199, 

at  I,  asi,  54a. 
Evance,  Mrs.,  544. 
Evarts,  John,  166. 
Eyers,  Simon,  435. 
Eyers,  Mrs.  Simon,  434,  43s. 


F. 


Fairbanks,  Richard,  191. 

Family  worship,  360. 

Feaks,  Robert,  330, 413. 

Fences,  cost  of,  at  Quinnipiac,  77. 

Fenn,  Benjamin,  109,  131,  i55>334»490,443, 

466,  468,  490, 49a,  493,  506,  513. 
Fenner  and  Turner,  4a. 
Fcnwick,  George,  x6a,  333,  334,  341,  34a, 

446,  448,  449.  587- 
Femes,  William,  47,  49. 
Field,  Mr.,  550. 
Field,  Sister,  554. 
Fiennes,  Charles,  445. 
Finch,  Abraham,  3a8,  339. 
Fitch,  James,  337,  338,  346. 
Fitch,  Joseph,  467. 
Fletcher,  John,  159. 
Foot,  Robert,  551.   . 
Foot,  Goodwife,  553. 
Footway  across  fields  in  Milford,  159. 
Ford,  Timothy,  no,  149,  150,  543,  546,  550. 
Ford,  Goody,  545,  549,  553. 
Fowler,  John,  155,  x66,  167. 
Fowler,  William,  76,  109,  137, 155,  156,  157, 

158,  543.  546. 
Fowler,  Sister,  544,  548. 
Foxon,  333,  337. 
French,  Thomas,  167. 
Fugill,  John,  X4a,  363. 
Fugill,  Thomas,  100,  loi,  zoa,  no,  xii,  laa, 

138.  139.  »4o.  142,  i47« 
Fuller,  Thomas,  35,  54. 
Fundamental  law,  386,  408,  409,  410. 

G. 

Gardiner,  Lion,  69. 

Garret,  Mr.,  41a. 

Gibbard,  William,  3aa,  430,  54a,  545.  549- 


Gibbard,  Sister,  544,  547,  55a. 

Gibbons,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Gibbons,  Henry,  543, 547,  550. 

Gibboiis,  William,  159,  153,  ax8,  543,  546, 

550. 
Gibbs,  John,  54a,  545,  550. 
Gibbs,  Sister,  544,  547,  55a. 
Gilbert,  John,  550. 
Gilbert,  Jonathan,  503. 
Gilbert,  Matthew,  xoo,  xox,  xoa,   X09,  xa6, 

xa7,  xa8,  X79,  339,  348,  384,  385,  991,  491, 

425.  426,  427.  433.  434.  437.  44©,  44«,  468, 

473.  490.  494.  506.  513.  549. 556. 
Gilbert,  Sister,  544,  547,  55a.* 
Gildersleeve,  Richard,  175. 
Glover,  Charles,  173. 
Gtover,  Henry,  390,  543,  546,  550. 
Glover,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 
GofTe,  Stephen,  35. 
GofTe,  William,  xa6, 137,  365,  4x8,  4ax,  4aa, 

423,  424,  428,  430,  43«.  432,  433,  435.  43^. 

440,  443.  444. 
Goldsmith,  Ralph,  173. 
Goodenhouse,  Samuel,  X46, 193,  545,  550. 
Goodenhouse,  Mrs.,  547. 
Goodwin,  William,  378,  555,  556. 
Goodyear,  Stephen,  41,  109,  135,  X36,  X9a, 

X98,  905,  ao6,  ao8,  309,  aii,  axa,  ai4,  aa4, 

250,  264,  a73,  344,  377,  403,  415,  416,  537. 
Goodyear,  Mrs.,  55a. 
Goodyear's,  Mr.,  daughters,  548. 
Gookin,  Daniel,  aoi,  aoa,  337,  338,  491. 
Government  at  New  Haven  instituted,  xox. 
Government  at  Milford  instituted,  156. 
Government  provisional  at  Guilford,   x68; 

institution  of,  at  Guilford,  X69. 
Greene,  widow,  110,  138. 
Greenwich,  41a,  4x3,  414,  465. 
Gregory,  Henry,  aao,  aai,  aaa. 
Gregory,  John,  549. 
Gregory,  Sister,  544. 
Gregson,  Richard,  546. 
Gregaon,  Thomas,  41,  76,  X05,  X09,  xxa,  X35, 

X79,  x8o,  ao8,  909, 914,  334,  537,  539,  569, 

587. 

Gregson,  Mrs.,  544,  559. 

Grover,  Simon,  173. 

Guilford,  covenant  of  its  planters  not  to 
forsake  one  aiK>ther,  x6i ;  proprietors  of, 
in  X659,  list  of,  z66;  church  instituted, 


602 


IXDEX. 


169;  limits  soffrage  to  churdMnanbers, 
170;  enlarges  its  territory,  453;  disaflected 
persons  at,  received  by  Conoecticut,  465. 

Gunn,  Ja:^)er,  069. 

Gulridge,  Richard,  161, 166. 


H. 


Haines,  James,  173. 

Halbidge,  Arthur,  97,  no,  149,  54s. 

Halbridge,  Goodwife,  549. 

Hall,  Francis,  no,  151. 

Hall,  Job,  140. 

Hall,  John,  153,  546,  55a. 

Hall,  Goodwife,  548, 553. 

Hall,  William,  161,  166. 

Hallock,  Peter,  173. 

Halstead,  Mr.,  481. 

Hames,  Goodman,  153. 

Hampden,  John,  23,  445. 

Hampton  G>urt  Gmferenoe,  8. 

Handicrafts,  variety  of  at  New  Haven,  ai6. 

Hanford,  John,  265,  366,  367. 

Harding,  Will,  358. 

Harriman,  John,  543,  545,  550. 

Harriman,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Harris<Hi,  Thomas,  550. 

Harrison,  Goodwife,  552. 

Hawkins,  William,  109,  136. 

Hayncs,  John,  179. 

Health  of  New  Haven  cok>ny  as  compared 

with  Old  England,  365. 
Hector,  the,  45,  47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  53,  53, 

54,  55. 

Henry  the  Seventh,  3,  6. 

Henry  the  Eighth,  33. 

Herbert,  John,  173. 

Hereford,  emigration  from,  to  New  Ha- 
ven, 43. 

Heresy,  law  against,  331. 

Hickock,  Mr.,  108,  109,  133. 

Higginson,  Francis,  23,  46,  54,  56,  143. 

Higginson,  Mrs.  Francis,  in,  143,  544. 

Higginson,  John,  165,  166,  167,  169,  241, 
269,  363. 

Higginson,  Theophilus,  143,  542. 

High  Commission,  25. 

Highland,  George,  167. 

Hill,  Robert,  97,  ni,  145,  543,  546,  550. 

HiU,  Sister,  545,  549. 


Hitchcock,  Edward,  546. 

Hitchcock,  Goodwife,  548. 

Hitchcock,  Matthias,  no,  151,  543,  546,  551. 

Hitchcock's,  Matthias,  wife,  544,  55a. 

Hoadley,  John,  161,  z66,  169. 

Hodskins,  Samod,  547,  551. 

Hodsldns,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Hodson,  John,  149,  290,  546,  550,  560. 

HodsoQ,  Mrs.,  548,  553. 

Hogg,  Thomas,  63. 

Hollister,  Gideon  H.,  504. 

Holt,  \lillliam,  546,  550. 

Holt,  Sister,  553. 

Hood,  Timothy,  31,  33. 

Hooke.  William,  196, 307,  239,  340,  »73,  375, 

377.  440,  441- 
Hooke,  Mrs.  WHliam,  423,  433,  ^44. 
Hooker,  Samuel,  465,  467. 
Hooker,  Thomas,  179,  355,  539. 
Hopkins,  Edward,  40,  53,  1x4,  118,  1x9,  zao, 

«7i.  275.  »76,  277.  279.  *8o,  381,  383,  389, 

290»  334,  4".  555.  55^.  559- 
Hopkins,  Mrs.,  1x4,  xxs,  555. 
Horton,  Barnabas,  163. 
House,  interior  of  Gov.  Eaton's,  zx6. 
Houses,  four  in  New  Haven  which  ^xcWkd 

in  stateliness,  135:    a  general  descripdon 

of  the  in  New  Haven  cokmy,  353,  353. 
Household  furniture,  354,  355. 
Householders  at  New  Haven  who  in  1641 

were  not  (rce-planters,  153. 
Howe,  Ephraim,  190,  550. 
Howe's,  Ephraim,  wife,  55a. 
Howe,  Jeremy,  545,  550. 
Howe's,  Jeremy,  wife,  548. 
Howe,  Sister,  552. 
Hubbard,  George,  166,  X67. 
Hubbard,  William,  172,  321,  366,  370,  373, 

387.  414,  538,  540. 
Hughes,  John,  161,  162. 
Hughes,  Richard,  167. 
Hull,  Andrew,  no,  X5X,  153. 
Hull,  Jeremiah,  553. 
Hull,  Goody,  545,  548. 
Hull,  John,  527. 

Hull,  Richard,  102,  109, 134,  547,  S5t. 
Humiliation,  days  of  extraordinary,  377. 
Humiston,  Henry,  551. 
Humiston,  Goodwife,  553. 
Humiston,  Sister,  553. 


INDEX. 


603 


Humphrey,  John,  445. 
Hutchinson,  Ann,  59. 
Hutchinson,  Richard,  48. 
Hutchinson,  Samuel,  48. 
Hutchinson,  Thomas,  aoo,  355,  435. 


I. 


Indian  conspiracy,  334,  344,  388. 

Indians,  Mohegan,  331,  333 ;    Quinnipiac, 

73.  74f    3*7.  318,  328,399;   Wepowaug. 

318,  319. 
Indians,  treated  with  justice  and  kindness, 

331,  32a,   323,    324,    325;    endeavors   to 

Christianize,  345,  346,  347. 
Iron-ore  brought  from  North  Haven,  224. 
Iron- works,  224. 

Ives,  William,  no,  112,  150,  543. 
Ives,  Sister,  544. 

J. 

Jackson,  John,  551. 

Jackson,  Sister,  553. 

James  the  First,  6,  7,  9, 10,  29,  41,  244,  445. 

James,  Thomas,  no,  137,  138,  263,  302,  542. 

James,  Mrs.,  545. 

James,  Thomas,  jun.,  543. 

Jeanes,  William,  109,  134,  263,  264,  266,  268. 

Jeffrey,  Thomas,  102, 109, 130, 131, 196, 198, 

220,  284,  297,  314,  324, 543,  546. 
Jeffrey,  Sister,  544,  548. 
Jenningson,  William,  293. 
John,  King,  3. 

Johnson,  Old  Goodwife,  549,  552. 
Johnson,  John,  97,  no,  167,  546,  550. 
Johnson's,  John,  wife,  552. 
Johnson,  Richard,  547,  551. 
Johnson,  Robert,  353,  543,  547. 
Johnson,  Goody,  544,  548. 
Johnson,  lliomas,  546,  550. 
Johnson's,  Thomas,  wife,  548,  552. 
Jones,  John,  322,  546. 
Jones.  Sister,  553. 
Jones,  Thomas,  161, 166. 
Jones,  WUliam,  291,  422,  425,  428,  4*9.  430. 

466,  468,  478,  485,  486,  490,  502,  506,  510, 

5".  5»3.  5M.  5»5.  549.  SS^. 
Jones,  Mrs.  William,  422,  423,  552. 

Jordan,  John,  x6i,  167. 


Jordan,  Thomas,  166,  390,  396,  397,  399. 
Judson,  William,  143,  545.  55o- 
Judson,  Goodwife,  549,  552. 
Juries,  no,  in  New  Haven,  386. 

K. 

KeUond,  Thomas,  424,  427,  438,  430,  434, 

443- 
Kent,  Surrey,  and  Sussex,  a  company  fnnn, 

settle  at  Guilford,  x6o. 
Kieft,  Governor,  570. 
Kimberley,  Abraham,  547. 
Kimberley,  Eleazar,  126. 
Kimberley,  Thomas,  109, 123, 135,  za6, 153, 

a67,  997,  435,  543,  546,  550. 
Kimberley,  Sister,  544,  548,  553. 
Kimberley,  John,  jun.,  551. 
Kimberley,  Zuriel,  134. 
King,  Samuel,  173. 
Kingsley,  Professor,  380. 
Kingsworth,  Henry,  z6i,  x66. 
Kirk,  Thomas,  424,  427,  428,  430,  434,  443. 
Kitchel,  Robert,  161,  164,  x66,  x68,  386. 
Knightly,  Richard,  445. 
Knowles,  Thomas,  543. 
Knowles,  Goody,  545. 

L. 

Lambert,  Edward  R.,  63,  73,  159,  369. 
Lamberton,  George,  76,  83,  84,  X05,  X09, 139, 

«3».  «33,  13s.  «94,  »09.  537.  54©. 
Lamberton,  Mrs.,  254,  544. 

Lamberton,  Hannah,  553. 

Lamberton's  ship,  3o8,  537. 

Lamson,  Jonathan,  1x2. 

Lamson,  Thomas,  543,  546,  550. 

Land  at  New  Haven,  purchased  from  the 

Indians,  84:  first  division  of,  X03,  aecoad 

division  of,  107. 
Larrymore,  George,  153,  319. 
Lathrop,  John,  37,  38. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  19,  ao,  36,  30,  32,  39,  33, 

34,  36,  4«.  42,  43.  160.  m6. 
Law,  Richard,  470,  473,  5»3.  5M» 
Lawrencson,  John,  193. 
Laws  of  the  colony,  4x1,  4x3. 
Leather  to  be  sealed,  333. 
Leaver,  Thomas,  253. 


6o4 


INDEX, 


Lediford,  Hioinas,  35a. 

Leeke,  Phflip,  mo,  322,  543,  546,  551. 

Leeke,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Leete,  William,  150,  161,  164,  x66,  168,  169, 
a34,  237,  338,  276,  285,  3x3,  389,  390,  396, 
397,  399.  403,  409»  4«5»  4^6,  421,  424,  425, 
426,  427,  433,  434,  435,  439,  440,  441,  443, 
468,  476,  479,  481,  482,  483,  484,  485,  487, 
490,  492.  49i.  500.  50a,  503,  506,  507,  510, 

5".  5«3.  574- 

Leigh,  Lord,  52. 

Leighton,  Aleacander,  24. 

Letter,  of  Davenport  and  Eaton  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  councO  of  Massachusetts,  65; 
of  Davenport  to  Lady  Vere,  162;  of 
Davenport  to  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  4x5: 
ditto,  4x7:  of  the  Councfl  of  Massachu- 
setts to  Gov.  Leete,  436:  of  the  General 
GMirt  of  New  Haveo  to  the  Council  of 
Massachusetts,  438:  of  John  Norton  to 
Richard  Baxter,  443;  of  Coimecticut  to 
New  Haven,  447;  of  Lord  Say  and  Seal 
to  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  450;  of  George 
Fenwick  to  WiUiaxn  Leete,  452:  of  Wil- 
liam Leete  to  John  Winthrop,  Jan.,  457; 
ditto,  458;  of  Connecticut  Committee  to 
their  much  honored  and  reverend  friends 
at  New  Haven,  Milford,  &c.,  467 ;  of  New 
Haven  Committee  in  reply  to  the  fore- 
going, 467 ;  of  the  freemen  of  New  Haven 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut, 
470;  of  John  Winthrop,  jun.,  to  Major 
Mason,  Deputy-Governor  of  Connecticut 
Colony,  and  the  rest  of  the  Court  there  at 
Hartford,  475;  of  Davenport  to  John 
Wmthrop,  jun,,  481;  of  William  Leete  to 
John  Winthrop,  jun.,  484;  of  New  Haven 
Committee  to  Connecticut  Committee,  486; 
of  Connecticut  Committee  in  reply  to  the 
foregoing,  488:  of  New  Haven  Committee 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut, 
495;  of  Connecticut  Committee  to  Gov. 
Leete,  502;  of  Gov.  Leete  to  Connecticut 
Committee,  503;  of  New  Haven  Commit- 
tee to  Connecticut  Committee,  505;  of 
Connecticut  Committee  in  reply  to  the 
foregoing,  506;  of  New  Haven  Committee 
to  Connecticut  Committee,  507;  of  Con- 
necticut Committee  in  reply  to  the  fore- 
going, 507;  of  New  Haven  Committee  to 


the  Councfl  of  Connecticut,  519:  of  die 
Councfl  of  Connecticut  in  rep^  co  the  fore> 
going,  522:  of  New  Haven  Ccmunittee  to 
the  Councfl  of  Connecticut,  523 :  of  Na- 
thanid  Rowe  to  John  Winthrop,  535;  of 
James  Pierpont  to  Cotton  Mather,  540: 
of  remonstrance  from  New  Haven  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  GMinecticut  Cokwy, 
56X ;  entitled  "  New  Haven's  Case  Stated," 
from  the  New  Haven  Conxmitxee  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  Conoecticut  Colony, 
566. 

Leveret,  Capt,  438. 

Liberty,    rdigious,   die   planters    of    New 
Haven  not  advocates  of,  226. 

Liodon,  Henry,  542,  545. 

Lindon,  Goody,  545,  547,  ssa. 

Lines,  Henry,  559. 

Lines',  Henry,  wife,  553. 

Lines,  Ralph,  547,  550. 

Lines',  Ralph,  wife,  552. 

Ling,  Benjamin,  xix,  X46,  147,  482,  54a,  56a. 

Ling,  Sister,  544. 

Linsley,  John,  167. 

Livermore,  John,  xxo,  149,  543. 

Livermore,  Sister,  544. 

Lord,  Robert,  322. 

Lord's  day,  the,  began  at  sunset,  361. 

Low,  Andrew,  97,  xxo,  145,  543,  546,  551. 

Low,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Lucas,  Mr.,  iii,  145. 

Ludlow,  Roger,  344,  404,  405. 

Lumber,  price  of,  at  QuinnifHac,  79. 

M. 

Malaria  at  New  Haven,  366. 

Malbon,  Mary.  122. 

Malbon,  Richard,  4X,  xoo,  109,  122,  123,  ia4, 

129,  130,  135,  X79,  208,  29s,  369,  542. 
Malbon,  Mrs.,  544. 
Mallory,  Peter,  546,  551. 
Mallory,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 
Manchester,  Earl  of,  571. 
Mansfield,  Joseph,  550. 
Mansfield,  Richard,  109,  X29,  X30,  X44,  145, 

213.  543. 
Mansfield,  Sister,  544,  549,  553. 
Mapes,  Thomas,  173. 
Alarket-place  at  New  Haven,  105. 


INDEX. 


605 


Mairiages,  how  solemniied,  363. 

Marshall,  Mr.,  11  x,  xag,  130,  145,  X47. 

Marsh,  Jonathan,  319. 

Marsh,  Samuel,  547,  551. 

Marsh,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Martin,  Capt.,  ao3. 

Martin,  Robert,  543. 

Martin,  Sister,  544. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  5. 

Mason,  John,  133,  995,  313,  333,  338,  339, 

475.  476,  480,  48*.  482, 496.  566,  573»  589. 

Massachusetts,  desirous  to  retain  Davenport 
and  his  company,  58 ;  reasons  why  Daven- 
port and  his  company  were  not  content  to 
settle  in,  6x;  requires  Mr.  Eaton  to  pay 
taxes,  65;  refuses  to  join  in  a  war  against 
the  Dutch,  389. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  transfier  the 
govenunent  of  their  plantations  to  New 
England,  33;  Davenport  a  director  of,  36; 
Eaton  a  patentee  of,  39. 

Mather,  Cotton,  99,  xox,  xx6,  Z3i,  141,  155, 
aoo,  540. 

Mather,  Richard,  333. 

Maverick,  Samuel,  509. 

Mayer  or  Mayres,  Mr.,  no,  140. 

Medal,  commemorating  the  settlement  of 
New  Haven,  74. 

Meeker,  William,  550. 

Meeker,  Goodwife,  553. 

Meeting-house  at  Guilford,  346;  at  Milibrd, 
346;  at  New  Haven,  347;  seating  the,  at 
New  Haven,  350. 

Meigs,  John,  134,  sao,  23x,  333, 436, 501, 543. 

Meigs,  Goody,  544. 

Mepham,  John,  161,  167, 169. 

Merriman,  Nathanael,  X53, 153, 447, 546, 550. 

Merriman,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Metcalf,  Stephen,  153,  376. 

Mew,  Ellis,  551. 

Mewhebato,  338. 

Miantinomoh,  333,  334, 335,  336,  344- 

Miles,  Richard,  109,  X36,  X4X,  155,  157,  aoa, 
303,  3o8,  348,  419,  543. 

Miles,  Mrs.,  544,  547»  3Sa. 

Miles,  Richard,  jun.,  546. 

Milibrd,  land  bought  for  a  scttlleroent  at,  9X ; 
church  at,  organized,  155;  first  general 
court  at,  156:  town  seal  of,  157;  limits  suf> 
(rage  to  church-memben,  X57;  name  given 


to,  X59;  original  name  of,  159;  first  divis- 
ion of  land  at,  x6o:  obstacle  which  delayed 
the  reception  of,  into  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  183. 

Military  duty,  exemption  from,  303. 

Military  officer,  chief  at  Quiimipiac,  994; 
only  a  church-member  could  be  a,  3x1. 

Mill,  the  first  in  N^w  Haven  colony,  158. 

Miller,  Thomas,  47. 

Mills,  Thomas,  167. 

Mitchel,  Matthew,  175. 

Mitchel,  Thomas,  153,  547. 

Mitchel,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Mix,  lliomas,  390,  546,  550. 

Mix,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Mohawks,  3x6,  317,  331. 

Momaugin,  84,  88,  89,  3x8,  339. 

Montauk  Indians,  313,  330. 

Montowese,  89,  3x8,  337,  339, 447. 

Moore,  Thomas,  X73. 

Morality  in  New  Haven  colony,  355. 

Morrell,  Henry,  547,  551. 

Morris,  Thomas,  153,  X53,  319,  546,  551. 

Morris,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Moss,  John,  xxo,  148, 149,  397, 543, 546,  55a 

Moss,  Goody,  545,  548,  553. 

Moss,  Joseph,  148. 

Mould,  Isaac,  3x1. 

Moulthrop,  Matthew,  xxo,  X5X,  545,  550. 

Moulthrop,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Mullener,  Mr.,  545,  550. 

MuUener,  Mrs.,  548,  553. 

Mullener,  Thomas,  546. 

Mimson,  Thomas,  130,  153,  196,  3x8,  984, 

997.  298.  3««,  543,  545,  550. 
Munson,  Sister,  545,  549,  553. 

N. 

Nash,  John,  X53,  ao3,  384,  397, 3XX,  474, 543, 

545,  550. 
Nash's,  John,  wife,  544,  547. 
Nash,  Joseph,  543.  546. 
Nash's,  Joseph,  wife,  545. 
Na&h,  Thomas,  X09,  X34,  X35, 196,  x6i,  x69, 

167,  315,  543. 
Nash,  Sister,  544,  548,  559. 
Naylor,  James,  336. 
Neighborhood  meetings,  xoo,  355,  378. 
Neighborly  heli^ulneu,  374. 


6o6 


INDEX, 


Ndghboriy  interooune,  379. 

Nepaupuck,  xoa,  327,  338,  339,  330. 

New  Engtand,  occasion  of  the  Puritan  emi- 
gration to,  I ;  connection  between  the  his- 
tory of,  and  the  history  of  the  mother 
country,  a. 

New  Haven,  iu  planters  leave  Boston  for 
Quinnipiac,  68 ;  its  planters  who  were  not 
proprietors  supplied  with  house-lots,  103; 
the  name  of,  when  given  to  that  plantation, 
X13;  iu  planters  endeavored  to  make  it  a 
commercial  town,  189;  receives  a  proposal 
to  remove  to  Ireland,  aoo;  receives  a  pro- 
posal to  remove  to  Jamaica,  aoi ;  town  on 
Sunday  morning,  376. 

Newman,  Francis,  41,  iix,  118,144, 197,  an, 
a85,  397,  32a,  397,  398,  403,  4xa,  415,  416, 

4i7f  424,  54a.  545- 
Newman's,  Francis,  wife,  544,  547. 
Newman,  Richard,  153,  551. 
Newman,  Goodwife,  553. 
Newman,  Robert,  41, 76, 95,99, 100,  loi,  loa, 

104,  HI,  147.  >6a,  163,  164,  165,  ao7,  339, 

441. 
Newman's  bam,  95,  99, 147, 163,  164. 
Newman's  Elder,  wife,  544. 
Newton,  Roger,  341,  468. 
NicoUs,  Adam,  153,  543. 
NicoUs,  Sister,  545. 
Nioolls,  Richard,  509,  517. 
Ninigret,  310,  313,  315,  331,  338,  400,  403, 

404,  406,  408. 
Norton,  Humphrey,  334,  335. 
Norton,  John,  233,  443. 
Norton,  Thomas,  i6x,  167. 

o. 

Obechiquod,  337. 
Osbill,  John,  551. 
Osborne,  Goodman,  178. 
Osborne,  Jeremiah,  546,  550. 
Osborne,  Richard,  no,  151,  153,  543 
Osborne,  Goody,  545,  548. 
Osborne,  lliomas,  no,  137,  153,  54a 
Osborne,  Sister,  544,  55a. 
Ourance,  322,  323. 
Overton,  341. 
Oyster  Point,  75. 
Oyster-shell  Field,  106. 


P. 


Paine,  Peter,  173. 

Paine,  William,  546,  551. 

Paine,  Goodwife,  548,  55a. 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  376,  345,  349,  350,  509. 

Pardee,  George,  389,  546,  550. 

Pardee,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Parker,  Edward,  546,  550. 

Parker,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Parmelee,  Sister,  553. 

Parmelin,  John,  161,  166. 

Parmelin,  John,  jun.,  z66. 

Parrot,  Francis,  137. 

Patrick,  Daniel,  330,  4x3. 

Patteaon,  Edward,  ixo,  151,  xsa,  543,  546, 

55». 
•Patteaon,  Sister,  545,  548.      * 

Paul,  Daniel,  xxo,  X49,  3x9,  543. 

Paulding,  Benjamin,  153. 

Payne,  Mr.,  335. 

Pfeakin,  John,  545. 

Pearce,  Mark,  xxi,  X46,  3x4,  a68,  998,  543. 

Peck,  Goodman,  153. 

Peck,  Jeremiah,  369,  370,  385,  286,  287,  378. 

Peck,  Widow,  548. 

Peck,  William,  4X,  xxo,  X49,  291,  359,  54a, 

546,  556. 
Peck,  Sister,  545,  548,  55a. 
Pelham,  Herbert,  445. 
Pell,  Thomas,  146,  367,  543. 
Peimington,  Ephraim,  547. 
Pennington,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 
Perkins,  Edward,  547,  553. 
Perry,  Richard,  109,  lao,  xaa,  377,  543. 
Perry,  Mrs.,  544. 
Peters,  Hugh,  69. 
Philip  of  Spain,  5. 
Pierce,  Capt.,  417,  419. 
Pierpont,  James,  319,  540,  54X. 
Pierson,  Abraham,  342,  375,  385,  287,  311, 

325.  346,  347.  38s.  468,  484.  5»5. 
Pigg,  Robert.  63,  153,  X53,  547. 
Pigg,  Goodwife,  548. 
Pikes  to  be  provided  at  the  town's  charge, 

298,305. 
Plane,  William,  161,  X67. 
Plastowe,  Josias,  375. 
Piatt,  Richard,  iio,  137,  155,  axo. 
Pocock,  John,  145,  155. 


INDEX. 


607 


Poous,  319,  390,  331. 

Population  of  New  Haven  in  1641,  153. 

Portrait  of  Davenport,  123. 

Portrait  which  belonged  to  the  £laton  family, 

115. 

Post-office,  germ  of,  191. 

Potter,  Goody,  548,  552. 

Potter,  John,  97,  xxo,  150,  551. 

Potter's,  John,  wife,  55a. 

Potter,  Joseph,  551. 

Potter's,  Joseph,  wife,  553. 

Potter,  Sister,  the  midwife,  544. 

Potter,  Widow,  110,  xsa 

Potter,  William,  no,  144,  2x3,  543,  545,  550. 

Potter's,  William,  wife,  544. 

Powell,  Thomas,! II,  142,  474,  543,  546,  551. 

Powell,  Sister,  545,  548,  553. 
i^Prwton,  EUlward,  546,  550. 
I  Preston's,  Edward,  wife,  553. 
I  Preston,  Robert,  543. 

\  Preston,  William,  109, 129, 134, 15X,  152,543. 
\Preston,  Sister,  178,  544,  548. 

FrTces  at  New  Haven,  77,  79,  21  x,  9x7. 

Prince,  Thomas,  494. 

Pringle,  William,  55X. 

Privy  Council,  notes  of  its  proceedings  in 
January,  1637,  42. 

Proprietors  of  Guilford  in  1652,  166. 

Proprietors  of  Milford  in  1646,  map  opposite 
p.  155. 

Proprietors  of  New  Haven  in  1641,  a  list  of, 
109. 

Prudden,  James,  109,  137, 155. 

Prudden,  Peter,  44, 53, 68,  73.90f  93. 99.  »o9. 
>37.  155.  «56,  241. 

Prynne,  William,  24. 

Punderson,  Ebeneser,  140. 

Punderson,  John,   too,   xox,  1x0,  140,  543, 

546,  550. 

Punderson,  Sister,  544,  548,  55a. 

Purchase  of  lands  from  the  Indiaiu,  84,  89, 
91,  164,  172,  174,  3x9,  390,  321. 

Puritan  emigration  commences  in  the  time 
of  the  third  parliament  of  Charles  the  First, 
22. 

Puritans  and  Separatists  at  New  Haven,  93. 

Puritans,  English,  reasons  why  they  emi- 
grated to  New  England,  x. 

Purrier,  William,  173. 

Pym,  John,  445. 


Quakers,  234. 

Quarters  in  the  town-plot  at  New  Haven,  76. 

Qtnrters,  outland,  at  New  Haven,  bounda- 
ries of,  104. 

Quesaquash,  84,  88. 

Quinnipiac,  the  Pcquot  war  made  the  English 
acquainted  with,  61 ;  seven  men  spend  the 
winter  at,  63 ;  arrival  at,  of  its  first  plant- 
ers, 69;  name  of,  changed  to  New  Haven, 
1x2. 

Quizmipiac  Indians,  73,  74,  3x7,  318. 


R. 


Rates,  Theophilus  Eaton  pays,  in  Massa- 

chusetts,  65. 
Rawson,  Edward,  434,  436,  449. 
Raynor,  Thurston,  175. 
Reeder,  John,  1x0,  151. 
Reekes,  Stephen,  905. 
Reeve,  James,  173. 
Regicides,  the,  Whalley  aiul  Gofle,  arrive  at 

Boston,  418;    at  New  Haven,  423:   are 

concealed  in  the  mill,  428:  at  Judges'  cave, 

431,  434;  at  Milford,  435:  at  Hadley,  444. 
Relf,  Thomas,  167. 
Restraint  which  the  Puritans  put  upon  their 

feelings,  370. 
Rich,  Lord,  445. 
Rich,  Sir  Nathanael,  445. 
Richards,  James,  501,  502,  503,  506,  5x4. 
Richardson,  Edward,  421. 
Robinson,  John,  125. 
Robinson,  Thomas,  211. 
Rogers,  Ezekiel,  81,  82,  83,  84,  X31, 137, 141, 

364. 
Ross,  George,  551. 
Rossiter,  Bray,  500,  501,  503,  504,  579,  580, 

582. 
Rossiter,  John,  500. 
Rowe,  Matthew,  546,  550. 
Rowe,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 
Rowe,  Nathanael,  127,  535,  536. 
Rowe,  Owen,  109,  127,  X28,  377. 
Rowlandson,  Mr.,  266. 
Ruggles,  Thomas,  241. 
Russell,  James,  iix,  129,  219,  543,  546,  550. 
Russell,  Sister,  545,  549,  553. 


6o8 


INDEX. 


Russell,  John,  444. 

Russell,  Sir  WQluun,  49. 

Russell,  William,  15a,  153, 219,  ago,  546, 550. 

Russell's,  Willbm,  wife,  548,  552. 

Rutherford,  Henry,  ito,  150,  4x9,  54a,  546, 

550- 
Rutherford,  Sister,  544,  547,  55a. 


s. 


Sabbath  worship,  at  Quinnipiac  under  an 
oak-tree,  7a;  in  the  meeting-houses,  35a, 

375- 
Sacket,  John,  547,  551. 
Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  445. 
Sanford,  Thomas,  433. 
Sassacus,  338,  33a. 
Saul,  Thomas,  ai8. 
Savage,  James,  ia7. 
Sawing  lumber,  79,  317. 
Sawsennck,  89. 

Say  and  Seal,  Lord,  445,  449,  571. 
Schedule  for  taxation  at  New  Haven,  109. 
School,  colony  grammar,  375;   Mr.   Peck, 

master  of,  285;    Mr.  Peck's  propositions 

concerning,  a86. 
School,  town,  at  (ruilford,  Mr.  Htgginaon, 

master  of,  269;  Mr.  Peck,  master  of,  369. 
School,  town,  at  Milford,  Mr.  Gunn,  master 

of,  270. 
School,  town,  at  New  Haven,  Mr.  Cheever, 

m.tster  of,   262;    Mr.   Jeanes,  master  of, 

264;  Mr.  Hanford,  master  of,  265:    Mr. 

Bowers,  master  of,  266;  Mr.  Pardee,  mas- 
ter of,  289. 
SchooU  early  established,  261. 
Scott.  John,  481,  484,  485. 
Scranton,  Dennis,  425. 
Scranton,  John,  166. 
Scarl,  Mr.,  528. 
Sebequanash,  332. 

Secretary  Fugill  put  out  of  office,  139. 
Scdgu-jv.k.  Robert,  201,  202. 
Scclcy,  Robert,  102,  109,  126,  130,  132,  196, 

211,  2;5,  311,  313,  314,  542,  547. 
S<reley,  Sister,  544,  548. 
Scllcv.int,  I)avid,  322. 

Separatists  and  Puritans  at  New  Haven,  93. 
S^vcn  men,  chosen  for  the  foundation-work 

of  a  church  and  a  government,  xox. 


Seward,  Edward,  167. 

Shaumpishuh,  85, 88,  164,  3x8. 

Sheader,  John,  X67. 

Sbeafe,  Jacob,  169. 

Shearman,  Samud,  5x3,  5x4,  5x5,  5x8,  5tx« 

535. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  X38,  355,  349. 

Sherman,  John,  a4X. 

Sherman,  Old  Father,  150. 

Sherman,  Widow,  xxo,  xxa,  150. 

Ship<arpenters,  at  New  Haven,  8x9. 

Ship-money,  33. 

Shoe-making,  unworkmanlike,  aao. 

Sickness  at  New  Haren  in  1658  and  1659, 
366. 

Signature  of  Davenport,  67:  of  Eaton,  67; 
of  Momaugin,  and  other  Quixmiptacs,  88; 
of  Montowese,  89;  of  Sawvennck,  89. 

Skidmore,  Richard,  173. 

Smart,  Pfcter,  25. 

Smith,  George,  ixo,  xxa,  xso,  543,  546,  550. 

Smith,  Sister,  545,  548,  55a. 

Smith,  Judge,  380. 

Smith,  Ralph  D.,  x6a,  376,  350. 

Smith,  Thomas,  3x4. 

Smyth,  Robert,  X73. 

Social  compact  at  Quinnipiac,  74. 

5)ocial  life,  influenced  by  religion,  37a;  amd 
by  residence  in  a  new  country,  373. 

Social  inequality,  manifestations  of,  374. 

Soldiers  sent  to  defend  Uncas,  307;  sent 
against  the  Dutch,  310:  rations  for,  3x3, 
314;  sent  against  Ninigret,  314. 

Somers,  William,  X67. 

Southold,  selded,  X71 ;  church  of,  gathered, 
171;  purchased  in  the  name  of  New  HaTcn, 
172:  under  one  jurisdiction  with  New 
Haven,  17a:  some  of  its  planters,  X73:  se« 
dition  at,  406;  revolts  from  New  Haven 
to  Connecticut,  463. 

Sowheag,  325,  326,  327,  585. 

Sperry,  Richard,  430,  431,  434,  55X. 

Sperry,  Good  wife,  554. 

Spinage,  Humphrey,  55X. 

Spinage,  Goodwife,  381,  55a. 

Spinning.  364. 

Stamford,  purchased,  174;  settled,  X75;  ad- 
mitted to  membership  in  the  colony,  X75; 
named,  175 ;  in  favor  of  war,  309, 404. 405; 
sedition  at,  405,  406;  some  of  its  inhab- 


INDEX. 


609 


itants  received  under  the  protectkm  of  G>n- 

necticut,  465. 
Standish,  Miles,  393. 
Stanton,  Thomas,  84,  89,  347. 
Star  Chamber,  23,  34. 
Stephenson,  William,  421. 
Stevens,  Thomas,  167,  31X. 
Stiles,  Ezra,  81,  lax,  136,  135,  34X,  348,  434, 

447. 
Stillwell,  Jasper,  x66. 
Stolyon,  Mrs.,  axo,  axx. 
Stone,  John,  x6x,  x66. 
Stone,  Samuel,  337,  465,  467,  483,  57a. 
Stone,  William,  x6i,  X67. 
Stonehill,  Henry,  X36,  X55. 
Stoughton,  Israel,  6x,  343. 
Stoughton,  William,  37. 
Street,  Nathanael,  550. 
Street,  Nicholas,  339,  375,  385,  387,  a9x,4X9, 

440,  441,  468,  474,  504,  556. 
Street,  Mrs.,  553. 
Street,  Samuel,  389,  390. 
Stuyvesant,  Petei,  195,  305. 
Sugcogisin.  84,  88. 

Sumptuary  laws,  none  in  New  Haven,  383. 
Sunday  evening,  spent  in  social  intercourse, 

550. 
Swain,  William,  339,  385. 
Swazey,  John,  X73. 
Swmerton,  Mrs.,  X53. 


T. 


Table  furniture,  356. 

Talcott,  John,  477,  493* 

Talmadge,  Robert,  334,  545. 

Tahnadgc,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Taphanse,  331. 

Tapp,  Edmund,  xio,  X37,  X55,  X56,  X57. 

Tappan,  Capt.,  408. 

Tapping,  James,  433. 

Target-shooting,  397. 

Taynter,  Michael,  333. 

Temple,  .'^ir  lliomas,  430,  433,  443. 

Tench,  Edward,  76,  X04,  X05,  xxi,  X40,  X45. 

Terry,  Richard,  173. 

Thanksgiving,  the  annual,  360;  postponed, 

416. 
Thomas,  John,  543, 546,  55 x. 
Thomas's,  John,  wife,  545,  548,  553. 


Thompson,  Anthony,  xxo,  xso,  151,  54a. 

Thompson,  Sister,  544,  547,  55a. 

Thompson,  John,  149,  153,  545,  550. 

Thompson,  John,  jun.,  546. 

Thompson,  Major  Robert,  48X,  484, 485, 555. 

Thompson,  William,  542,  545,  550. 

Thorpe,  Nathanael,  333,  333,  334. 

Thorp,  William,  xix,  145,  543,  547,  551. 

Thorp,  Goodwife,  548,  553. 

Tibbals,  Thomas,  155,  xo8. 

Tichener,  Martin,  546,  55X. 

Tichener,  Goodwife,  549,  553. 

Todd,  John,  143. 

Todd,  Christopher,  X43,  X53,  543,  545,  550. 

Todd,  Sister,  544,  548,  553. 

Toquatoes,  331. 

Town  plot  at  New  Haven  laid  out,  75. 

Trade  of  New  Haven-with  Boston,  X90;  with 

Manhattan,  X9X ;  with  Delaware  Bay,  903; 

with  Virginia,  304;  with  Barbadoes,  905; 

with  England,  907. 
Trainings,  military,  396,  378. 
Treat,  Robert,  385,  43X,  433,  466,  468,  490, 

506, 513. 
Troopers,  a  company  of,  304. 
Trowbridge,  Thomas,  xxo,  X50,  990,  550. 
Trowbridge's,  Thomas,  wife,  S53. 
Trowbridge,  William,  550. 
Trowbridge's,  William,  wife,  553. 
Trumbull,  Benjamin,  59, 64,  68,  73, 90,  165, 

«7i.  «73.  »74.  «75.  «94,  i9St  «",  3«6,  3x8, 

336,  346,  388,  404,  535. 
Tucker,  Francis,  37. 
Tucker,  John,  X73. 
Turkish  pirate,  3x0. 
Turner  and  Fenner,  43. 
Turner,  Isaac,  551. 
Turner,  Nathanael,  xoo,  xo3,  X09,  xax,  xaa,* 

134,  X38,  X44,  X46,  X74,  909,  axo,  313,  »93. 

394,  395,  396,  998,  319,  537. 
Turner,  Mrs.,  544. 
Tuthill,  John,  173,  176. 
Tuttle,  John,  546,  551. 
Tuttle's,  John,  wife,  553. 
Tuttle,  Elizabeth,  X30. 
Tuttle,  Jonathan,  550. 
Tuttle's,  Thomas,  wife,  553. 
Tuttle,  William,  109,  XX9,  324,  474,  543,  546, 

550. 
Tuttle,  Sister,  544,  547, 55a. 


6io 


INDEX. 


U. 

Uncas,  307,  331,  339,  333,  334,  335,  336,  337, 

338.  339.  343.  344. 
Uoderhill,  John,  62, 178, 993,  308,  330,  330. 


V. 

Vail,  Jeremiah,  173. 

Vane,  Harry,  5a. 

Vere,  Lady  Maiy,  39.  31, 1x3, 179. 

Vincent,  John,  153,  543,  547. 


w. 

Wakefield,  John,  151,  543,  546. 

Wakefield,  Sister,  545,  548. 

Wakeman,  J6hn,  179,  908,  9ao,  999, 930, 490, 

545. 
Wakeman,  Sister,  544,  547. 
Walker,  John,  153. 
Wampum,  9x2,  959. 
Ward,  Andrew,  174, 175, 176,  179. 
Ward,  George,  xix,  X99,  9x9. 
Ward,  Goodman,  3x4. 
Ward,  Lawrence,  xxx,  199,  9x9,  433. 
Ware,  John,  55X. 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  445,  44^,  448,  449.  57*- 
Wascussue,  3x9 
Wash,  322. 
Watch-house,  30X. 
Watch,  night,  399. 

Watch  to  be  kept  on  days  of  worship,  302. 
Waters,  Joseph,  514. 
Watson,  EUlward,  547. 
Watson,  Goodwife,  549. 
Wattoone,  328,  329. 
Wawcqua,  335,  336,  337. 
Weaving,  364. 

Welch,  Thomas,  X36,  X55,  X56. 
Wells,  William,  173. 
Wepowaug,  land  at,  bought  by  Prudden  and 

his  company,  91. 
Wepowaug  Induns,  318,  319. 
Weciua:,h,  332,  338,  339,  340,  341,  342,  343, 

3M,  345. 
Wcsaucunck,  84,  88. 

Wcstcrhousc,  William.  X49,  192,  X93,  367. 
Westminster  confession  of  faith,  243. 


Whalley,  Edward,  142, 365, 431 ,  439,  423, 434, 
4*8,  430.  43*.  43a,  433,  435.  436,  440,  443, 


Wheeler,  Thomas,  543,  546,  547,  551. 

\l'heeler.  Goody,  545,  548. 

Wheeler,  Moses,  xxx,  X29. 

Whitaker,  Ephraim,  x  73, 173. 

White,  Henry,  xis,  X34. 

Whitehead,  Isaac,  546. 

Whitehead,  Samuel,  xxo,  X48,  397,  3x1,  543, 

545.  550- 
Whitehead,  Sister,  545,  548,  553. 
Whitfield,  Henry,  43,  125,  X44,  x6o,  x6x,  163, 

X64,  X65, 166,  X67,  x68,  X69,  340,  a4X,  269, 

a75.  3x8,  423.  481. 
Whitfield's  bouse,  349,  350,  351,  353. 
Whiting,  Mr.,  5x0. 
Whitman,  Zachariah,  X37,  X55, 156,  X57,  241, 

377. 
Whitmore,  John,  X75,  331. 
Whitnell,  Jeremiah,  X09,  X36,  543,  547,  551. 
Whitnell,  Sister,  544,  549. 
Whitway,  Thomas,  333. 
^K^gglesworth,  Edward,  xxx,  X43,  376,  377, 

54a. 

Wigglesworth,  Sister,  544. 

Wigglesworth,  Michael,  7a,  X43,  263,  531. 

Wilford,  John,  543. 

Wilkes,  William,  X3X. 

Willard,  Major,  314,  404. 

Williams,  Roger,  64,  343. 

Williams,  Widow,  xii,  145. 

Willis,  Mr.,  535,  536. 

\^!Tlloughby,  Francis,  555. 

Wdmot,  Benjamin,  153,  54a,  546,  551. 

Wilmot,  Goodwife,  544,  548,  55a. 

Wilmot,  Goodwife,  jun.,  548. 

Wilmot,  Wifliara,  551. 

Wines,  Barnabas,  X73. 

Winslow,  Edward,  46. 

Winslow,  Josiah,  494. 

Winston,  John,  290,  546,  550. 

Winston,  Goodwife,  549. 

Winthrop,  John,  52,  54,  56, 60, 6x, 63, 63,  78, 
83. 9^  "4.  "7, 131. 190,208,210,  219,  231, 
32».  330.  34^  358,  3S2,  3S3,  535,  537,  540, 
567. 

Winihrop,  John,  jun.,  53,  224,  23;,  354,  3O3, 
369.  415.  417.  419.  4".  423.  424,  448,  44^ 
464,  467,  469,  47t,  473.  475.  47^,  477,  481, 


INDEX. 


6u 


48a,  483,  484,  485,  493.  494,  496,  497»  505. 

So6»  517.  536,  5*7.  563.  566,  57«»  573»  574, 

575.  576,  577- 
Winthrop,  Mrs.  John,  jun.,  354. 
Winthrop,  Waitstill,  500,  50a,  503. 
Wolcott,  Henry,  506. 
Wooden,  Will,  551. 
Wooden,  Goodwife,  553. 
Woodgreen,  Mr.,  437. 
Worship,  public,  on  the  Lord's  day,  252. 
Wyllys,  Samuel,  463,  465,  467,  477,  478, 

485,  486,  491,  495,  500,  502,  503,  506,  5x0, 

5>3. 


Y. 


Yale,  David,  40, 109,  xao,  138. 

Yale,  Elihu,  130,  138. 

Yale,  Thomas,  40,  ixo,  138,  2x3,  446,  543, 

546,  549- 
Yale,  Mrs.,  544,  548,  55a- 
Yorkshire  company  of  emigrants  at  Quiimi- 

piac,  81. 
Young,  Aime,  40. 

Youngs,  John,  X7X,  xja,  X73,  X74,  234. 
Youngs,  John,  jun.,  3x5,  406, 407,  408,  409, 

463,464. 


i